Halt
Han Yuseol stood on watch, surveying the interviewees.
Looking them over, she thought to herself,
·····Ah. I want to go home already.
Every last one of them was more than good enough to pass.
Well — the people gathered here were all veterans who'd already cleared the first and second rounds of interviews. What more was there left to evaluate?
Which was why this homebody of a woman simply wanted to hurry home and browse the galleries.
That was when it happened.
"·····?"
Han Yuseol's eyes widened of their own accord.
When had she gotten this close?
Looking down, she found the girl she'd been carefully watching holding out a can of coffee.
"·····Thank you."
She hadn't expected one would be offered to her as well, so her thanks came a beat late.
Han Yuseol regarded the can for a moment, then turned her gaze back to the girl and asked,
"Um·····-"
"·····?"
She'd started the conversation because she wanted to talk — then realized she'd never once seen the girl open her mouth. Could she not speak?
·····Huh?
Thinking about it, this was an extremely awkward situation.
There were plenty of things she wanted to ask.
Are you really twenty? Are you a foreigner? Things like that.
But if she truly had a physical condition that kept her from speaking, wouldn't asking questions she couldn't answer just put her on the spot?
A careless word might even dig into a painful wound of the girl's.
Just as sweat was about to bead from pure social panic—
"Y-your fairy is cute."
Thankfully, by turning the question into a plain statement, she managed to weather the crisis unscathed.
The girl didn't seem to find it particularly strange either; she merely nodded in silence.
And with perfect timing—
Beep-beep— beep-beep—
The alarm she'd set on her wrist went off.
Ten minutes had already passed; break time was over.
"All right. We'll get moving again."
At Han Yuseol's words, the hunters who'd been resting — and the porters as well — rose one by one from their seats.
Han Yuseol glanced at the girl again.
Her name was Ellie, wasn't it?
How to put it.
The girl was truly mysterious.
Like someone who lived in a completely different world?
And strangely, she wasn't afraid of her.
Which led to a thought.
I wonder if she'll have time after this is over?
She wanted to become friends with her.
Normally she was a homebody who was terribly shy with people, but somehow this girl wasn't a burden at all.
If anything, being near her felt... peaceful?
Once the new-hunter interviews were finished, she should ask once.
The gate raid itself proceeded without a hitch.
How smoothly, you ask?
"Halt. We'll stop here."
Smooth enough that Han Yuseol, deciding there was nothing more worth evaluating, cut the raid short midway through.
"We'll switch to escort formation and return."
Unlike before, the hunters answered not with words but with nods.
They remained taut with vigilance until they were out of the gate.
And so they were heading back in escort formation — porters in the center, hunters ringing them in — when it happened.
"Halt."
Han Yuseol stopped the hunters.
Kneeling on one knee for a moment, she began carefully examining the ground.
Curious, they checked and found her studying footprints on the floor.
"·····."
After a brief silence, brow furrowed, Han Yuseol spoke.
"Is there anyone among the interviewees or porters who has a tracking skill?"
"·····."
No answer came.
Apparently none of the thirty awakeners, porters included, possessed tracking ability.
"What's the matter?"
One of the interviewees asked.
It was the middle-aged tank who'd taken the vanguard during the test.
Han Yuseol slowly rose as she answered.
"It's a gate anomaly. There appears to be a monster that shouldn't exist in this gate."
At her reply, the atmosphere sank a little heavier.
Gate anomaly.
For reasons unknown, a phenomenon in which a monster that should not exist in that particular gate appears.
The tank looked at the footprints Han Yuseol had been examining, his face growing more serious.
Soon, as if understanding why she'd asked for someone with a tracking skill, he nodded and said,
"These footprints... hopgoblin footprints."
"Yes."
"We'll definitely have a hard time without a tracking skill."
Hopgoblins were an evolved higher species of goblin, more intelligent than ordinary goblins.
As such, they preferred ambushes and surprise attacks over frontal combat, and excelled at setting traps and exploiting terrain.
"Still, good thing we figured it out before we got hit."
"Yes. From here on, I'll take the lead."
Someone of Han Yuseol's caliber had the physical ability and reflexes to react even if she stepped on a trap.
"We'll maintain escort formation as we move. Move out."
And so they began moving again.
A sudden gate anomaly.
Thinking it was a rather dangerous situation, I started to get quite tense.
Stabilizes mind and body.
No, wait.
I mean, completely relaxing in a situation like this doesn't seem good...
Gently steadies mind and body.
Just the right amount of tension was maintained.
So it could be regulated?
That was when it happened.
Tap—
Han Yuseol, walking at the front, raised one hand and clenched it into a fist.
A halt signal.
Then the hand signals that followed.
—Ahead. Hopgoblins spotted. Five.
That seemed to be what she was saying, but I couldn't see them myself.
With my height reduced, the hunter uncles in front completely blocked my view with their backs.
Anyway, they'd spotted five hopgoblins ahead.
Conversely, the creatures didn't seem to have noticed us.
Han Yuseol said in a low voice,
"I'll handle this."
In that instant—
Whoosh—
She vanished, exactly as it looked.
She'd merely pushed lightly off the ground, yet Han Yuseol's figure was already before the hopgoblins.
At the same moment she arrived, her katana swept.
Slash—
The horizontally swung blade cleanly severed the goblins' necks as it passed.
Even from a distance, I could see all five hopgoblin heads rising into the air.
Whoa·····.
So that's an A-rank hunter?
Overwhelming skill that drew admiration all on its own!
Of course, I couldn't show that I'd been impressed.
I wanted to clap, but the skill wouldn't let me.
Anyway, with Han Yuseol taking care of the five hopgoblins, the situation ended.
Since Han Yuseol was a bit farther away, the tank at the front led the party this time.
"We'll move out again."
That was when it happened.
Beep!
Suddenly, Ppirongi appeared and blocked my path.
"Ppi! Ppi-ppi!"
As if warning that ahead was dangerous.
In that instant—
Twanggg!
From all sides came the sound of bowstrings being drawn.
If even I had heard it, there was no way the other hunters hadn't.
The tank shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Ambush!"
Bang!!
Immediately after, arrows flew from every direction.
Still, every hunter gathered here was a veteran.
Clang!
Some swatted arrows aside with their swords; others blocked them with their shields.
At the same time, Han Yuseol's figure, far ahead, vanished once more.
Apparently she'd gone to deal with the goblins firing the arrows.
But the hopgoblins seemed to have been waiting for exactly this moment.
Fwoosh!
The ground at the center of the formation, where the porters stood, erupted upward.
Raising clouds of dirt, hopgoblins appeared without warning.
They'd been hiding underground.
There were five hopgoblins in total.
And one of them was right in front of my nose.
A crude dagger was clutched in the hopgoblin's hand.
And that dagger was about to touch my throat.
In the moment when my life hung by a thread—
a strange phenomenon occurred.
Dreamy King's Dignity activates with force.
"Ah."
My emotions were strange.
Rather than fear — contempt.
A sneer rose that a mere monster would dare target my life.
Not a single negative thought entered my mind.
Instead of weak words like No, I don't want this, stop, kyaaaah! — the first word that surfaced was—
Stop.
The resolute, crystal-clear voice that flowed from my lips spread through the entire cave like an echo.
Han Yuseol was stunned.
While dealing with the goblins firing arrows, goblins had burst from the ground where the porters stood.
!?
And the result was hurtling toward the worst.
Ah, no!?
The vision that had improved dramatically upon awakening as a hunter made even a somewhat distant scene as clear as if it were right in front of her, and her abnormally evolved processing speed slowed the entire world.
Which was why the sight reflected in Han Yuseol's eyes was the worst.
Goblins springing their ambush, charging at the five porters.
And among those porters was Ellie.
And the crude dagger in the goblin's hand was almost touching Ellie's throat.
Too late.
The moment Han Yuseol thought that—
A pure, clear resonance rang through every corner of the cave.
In that instant.
Still—
Truly, everything stopped.
The goblin swinging its dagger at Ellie's throat. The goblins attacking the other porters. Even Han Yuseol herself, racing toward them at full speed.
The indiscriminately spreading echo seized control of every living creature moving in that place.