Lightning in the Dark
“Master, are you nervous?”
“I… I want to go to work.”
She dropped that bombshell the morning after they returned from their outing.
Jihyun nearly sprayed his instant coffee across the table.
“Koff— You? Work?”
“Yes. Hunter work.”
“A ten-year-old doing hunter work?!”
Exactly the reaction she had expected. Common sense said a ten-year-old had no business stepping into a gate, after all.
But she wasn’t a common-sense ten-year-old, was she?
“Come on, you know I’m not a normal ten-year-old!”
“Even so… you can’t even lift a single book properly…”
She had no comeback for that one.
Still, she couldn’t keep living off them forever—eating their food, wearing their clothes, sleeping under their roof. Clinging to this shabby guild like some freeloading parasite was starting to chafe at her pride.
More than anything, the most valuable asset this guild possessed was sitting right in front of them.
“Heh. I’m strong, you know.”
She puffed out her chest, trying to look confident. Jihyun’s expression remained unreadable.
“Riiight. Of course you are…”
“I am! I’m an ego sword, remember?!”
“You are an ego sword, but your power still depends on your master’s abilities. And with Senior in that state…”
“Hey! Stop badmouthing me from over there!”
Nayeon’s distant shouting was easy to ignore.
“Hmm.”
Besides, these two had no idea she had already stolen five sword techniques from every previous owner she had passed through.
Should she demonstrate with the wooden sword? No—neither of them knew the first thing about swordsmanship; they wouldn’t recognize anything anyway.
“Our Byeori really is strong! Jihyun, let’s let our Byeori make her debut!”
Nayeon’s eyes sparkled as she immediately took Byeori’s side.
She appreciated the support, but…
What did Nayeon even know? She had no clue whether Byeori was actually strong or not!
“Senior, why are you like this too?”
“But Byeori’s an ego sword, right? If she was born from my wish, she has to be the strongest ego sword in the world.”
“Do you even know how recently she woke up—”
Jihyun’s words trailed off. His gaze drifted to the desk.
A stack of unpaid bills. Beside it, a bankbook showing a four-digit balance.
Something about the reward from the request they finished a few days ago still not having come in…
“……”
Jihyun removed his glasses and pressed his fingers against his eyelids.
“Jihyun, we have to check at least. Our guild’s youngest is a walking lucky charm!”
“……”
“More than anything, Byeori wants this. Right? And I’ll be going with her. A veteran will keep her as safe as possible!”
Jihyun’s eyes flicked back to the bankbook.
“……The safest option.”
“Hm?”
“One rule only. If it looks dangerous, we pull out immediately.”
“Got it.”
“I mean it. Just this once.”
His tone was firm, but the permission had already been granted.
“Just watch! I’ll show you how amazing our Byeori really is!”
Being trusted that much was… a little overwhelming.
*
They accepted a single low-rank gate request.
Nayeon had spent days making calls until she finally scraped together a small D-rank gate. Low risk, low pay—the exact kind of job bottom-tier guilds like theirs were stuck with.
Byeori was registered as a “Class Undisclosed Apprentice Guild Member.”
Nayeon had squeezed the gray broker one more time and returned with a plausible rookie license under the name Kang Byeori.
A mysterious little hunter whose only listed trait was that she used a sword. Everything else—being an ego sword, transforming into a blade, the military veteran inside—was hidden behind that thin piece of plastic.
Well, the last part she couldn’t have said even if she wanted to!
“Remember. No transforming.”
“Yup.”
“If you suddenly turn into a sword, people will freak out.”
“I know.”
“If word gets out that you’re an ego sword, we don’t know what’ll happen. We won’t be able to protect you either. Those scary men in black suits will come and do who-knows-what to you.”
Jihyun tugged on the registration lanyard one extra time for good measure.
It felt oddly like wearing a kindergarten name tag.
“They won’t find out. I’m good at hiding things.”
She had spent three years concealing her consciousness without anyone noticing. Hiding one identity? She could do it with her eyes closed.
She accepted the real sword they lent her instead of the wooden practice blade.
The edge was intact, but it was an ordinary mass-produced model—the perfect fit for an apprentice.
When she stood it on its scabbard, the tip touched the floor.
Almost as tall as she was.
The moment she gripped the hilt, though—
“Hnn.”
It was light. She had struggled to lift even a frying pan, yet this sword as tall as herself felt no heavier than chopsticks.
It wasn’t that her strength had increased. Her body simply favored swords. They were kin, after all.
The hilt was unfamiliar, yet her fingers moved without hesitation.
The placement of her thumb. The angle of her wrist.
The countless habits she had watched over hundreds, thousands of times took over first.
“…Heh.”
A strange feeling.
She had always been on the other side of the gate—always the sword being wielded, always in someone else’s hand.
It felt… odd.
Good? Joyful?
She tapped the scabbard tip against the floor and started walking.
*
The gate hovered over an abandoned lot on the city outskirts.
A tear in the air, like an open wound. In front of it, several other hunter teams assigned to the same request were checking their gear.
The glances they gave her lasted exactly two beats.
First her face.
Then the sword nearly as tall as she was strapped to her back.
When she bent her knees for a stretch and the scabbard tip brushed the dirt, someone narrowed their eyes.
‘That kid can’t seriously be a hunter.’
Pretty much that kind of look.
While they waited, she habitually scanned the other teams’ equipment.
Swords and armor registered before faces ever did.
That team’s blades were poorly maintained. The other group was mostly rookies.
Three years living as equipment had given her a nasty occupational disease.
“Don’t be nervous. Everyone’s like that their first time.”
She had been glancing around when Nayeon grabbed her hand tightly, apparently thinking she was anxious.
…Even though Nayeon’s own palm was the dampest one there.
“Master, are you nervous?”
“N-no! Why would I be nervous?”
Their C-rank hunter Nayeon answered in a very nervous voice.
Byeori had been about to tease her when a chill brushed her skin.
The energy leaking from the gate.
“…?”
A cold presence. An eerie scent.
The same feeling she had sensed deep inside A-7 last year, right before she broke…
“What is this?”
This was supposed to be a D-rank gate. Why was something like this here…?
Her imagination? No— no matter how she thought about it, it didn’t make sense.
Just as she turned back toward the rift, the signal to enter came from inside.
—Next team! Please enter promptly!
Their turn.
*
The interior of this gate took the form of a damp cave.
According to the D-rank assessment, it should have been a simple matter of clearing a few low-grade monsters and retrieving the core.
Nayeon took the lead, drawing her sword.
She was a C-rank hunter, after all. Even while trembling, she cleanly bisected the lizard-type monsters that popped out of the darkness one or two at a time. When it came to actual combat, her hands were surprisingly steady—fitting for a guild leader who usually acted like a scatterbrain.
“See? Nothing to it. Our Byeori just needs to stay quietly behind big sis—”
She had been proudly boasting when—
Thud—
Her words cut off.
The cave interior rumbled.
Once.
Twice.
Footsteps.
Very large.
Very heavy.
*
A shadow emerged from the darkness.
A massive body covered in thick scales. A frame that filled the narrow cave completely.
At least B-rank. Maybe higher?
The assessment wasn’t wrong. Something anomalous had occurred inside this gate.
“Eep.”
So that was the presence she had felt outside.
“W-what is that—”
Nayeon’s face went deathly pale.
The monster raised its foreleg—directly toward Nayeon, who had been standing in front to demonstrate.
Nayeon stood frozen with her sword raised. It was a natural reaction. A C-rank hunter who had only ever tackled low-grade dungeons had no experience facing a creature like this.
No time to shout “run”?
None.
No time to think?
None either.
She didn’t even remember she was supposed to hide her abilities.
In that instant, none of it mattered—national property, her identity, any of the trivial details. None of them were more urgent than Nayeon having that paw come crashing down on her.
Her body simply moved first.
Byeori slipped in front of Nayeon and raised the borrowed sword.
Of the five techniques she had stolen, the one with the greatest offensive power.
“Hoo…”
Her very first owner. The thrust wreathed in blue lightning.
Flash—
The sword traced a line of light.
Blue lightning crackled along the blade. Silver gleamed atop the vivid edge.
The massive foreleg was severed cleanly at the wrist.
“Kiiiiiik—!”
The monster shrieked and recoiled. Its severed foreleg slammed into the floor, black blood gushing.
Thud—
The cave fell silent for a moment.
Nayeon. The other hunters who had been trying to flee.
All of them were staring at her.
“……”
Oh no.
“B-Byeori…!”
Nayeon hurriedly yanked her behind her back.
…Too late. Everyone had already seen.
Blue sparks still danced across the borrowed blade. The technique she had learned from someone else’s hand now lingered at her fingertips.
A sudden thought crossed her mind.
What kind of face would that person make if they saw this blue lightning?
Would they be angry that she had stolen their technique?
Or…
Just then, the monster’s remaining foreleg scraped against the floor.
It wasn’t dead yet.
She could think about that later.
“Hup.”
Byeori stepped in front of Nayeon again and readjusted her grip on the sword.
Her hands didn’t tremble in the slightest.
Of course they didn’t. She was a sword. She had never once felt fear standing before a monster.
From somewhere behind her came the sound of someone pulling out a phone.
Click—
Shoot.
This was one hundred percent going straight to the Hunter Gallery.
She could worry about the aftermath later—
“Kiiik—!”
…First, she had to deal with that ugly thing!