003 Will You Bathe With Me?
Thankfully, Seol Hayun merely gave me a sidelong glance before withdrawing her gaze without any particular reaction. Those few short seconds felt like several minutes to me. Had she seen through me? No, there was no way. I was wearing a completely different face on a completely different body now. Different name, different gender, different voice, a different entire vibe — I was even consciously altering my gait.
And so I quietly released a sigh of relief where no one could see. After that, my guild membership was finalized without a hitch. Perhaps thanks to that healing potion incident earlier, even the enrollment procedure had been carried out as a mere formality.
The next day, I spent an utterly comfortable one lounging in the lodging the guild had assigned me. According to the staff member in charge, there wouldn't be much to do for the next several days beyond touring the guild grounds. I wouldn't be entering a dungeon right away, either.
"Crafters with production-type skills always start out in beginner-grade dungeons anyway, so there's no need to rush in. Just take your time easing into things," the staff member said with a reassuring, don't-worry smile — and I found it a little funny, honestly. Beginner dungeons. To me, those were practically a stroll in the park. If I carried in just a handful of the artifacts I'd made, I could conquer a beginner dungeon in a matter of minutes with literally zero risk. Until quite recently, I had all but lived inside them. So my current situation was, for me, the equivalent of a full-blown vacation. Paradise, plain and simple. Eden, with cupids blaring their trumpets.
Frankly speaking, my life had become unbelievably comfortable lately. The old me had been someone who ground through ten hours of work a day, every day, without a single day of rest — and it was all because of those damn hunters. At first, raking in fortunes had felt wonderful. I'd wanted to keep at it even if it wore my body down to nothing; with money like that, I figured I could retire and play for the rest of my life. But once my savings climbed past the tens of billions of won, a strange thought crept in. What was the point of all this money? No, seriously — how much of it could I even spend? If anything, once my estimated assets went public, there had even been an Awakener who came hunting for my money deep inside a dungeon. That was the moment I realized humans could be scarier than monsters.
But look at me now. The guild hands me free lodging, serves delicious meals three times a day, doesn't ask me to set foot in a dungeon — I get to live in peace just sitting around, treated as a rookie potion crafter. I even get showered with consideration everywhere I go simply for being a woman. Damn it, this is the good life. This is absolutely the good life. For me, this place might as well have been a resort.
I was in the middle of enjoying that easy day when I was suddenly summoned. The Master wanted to see me — Seol Hayun herself. Apparently she had received the report on my enrollment, and apparently she had only just now found a spare moment. I headed for the Master's office feeling a touch nervous.
"Come in."
I opened the door to find Seol Hayun seated at her desk, smiling as she looked at me. Her blue ponytail caught the light faintly beneath the office lamps.
"Our second time meeting, isn't it?"
"...Ah, yes. I suppose it is."
Even though my acceptance was already a done deal, the atmosphere was oddly reminiscent of a job interview. I did wonder — was it normal for a Guild Master to personally call in every single rookie like this? Come to think of it, Seol Hayun had always had a particular obsessive streak when it came to crafters. She was the hunter who had profited from my artifacts more than anyone else, so I supposed it made sense. A brief thought flickered through my mind: had I made a mistake introducing myself as a potion crafter?
"Let me ask you a few things. Why did you join our guild? What's your goal?" Seol Hayun asked, arms folded. Her eyes were subtly sharp — the look of a Master taking the measure of a new recruit. I answered as naturally as I could manage.
"In Korea, when you think of guilds, you think of the Ice Guild, and when you think of hunters, you think of you, Hunter Seol Hayun. If I'm joining one anyway, I figured I should aim for the best — go with the tide."
Honestly, it was half flattery and half sincerity. It was true that the Ice Guild sat at the top of the rankings, and it was true that Seol Hayun currently held Rank 3.
But the moment those words left my mouth, Seol Hayun's expression brightened in an instant.
"...Really? You've got a good eye on you."
Her crossed arms came undone in one smooth motion, and she leaned slightly forward over the desk.
"Then from today on, you're my little sister."
"...Pardon?"
"My sworn little sister. Be my little sister. Starting today."
The development was so abrupt that I went blank for a moment. Could a single mention of potion crafting really send someone's affection meter soaring this hard? Then again, this woman had always been deadly serious about crafters. Back when I wore my male face, she had come at me with everything from threats to seduction — and now that a woman had told her "I'm a potion crafter," her approach had simply pivoted to "be my little sister." Seriously, what was she, some kind of crafter zealot?
"...Ah, sure. Why not. Ahaha."
I nodded along in a daze, wearing an awkward smile. Up to this point, things were still manageable. Being sworn siblings was a burden I could technically carry. But the problem came right after.
"Then, to celebrate you becoming my little sister!" Seol Hayun flashed a grin and said, "Wanna come bathe with me?"
"...WHAT?!"
For a second, I was sure I had misheard.
"A bath? Did you just say a bath?"
"Yep. Our guild bathhouse is fantastic. If sworn sisters want to get close, this kind of thing is a must."
Seol Hayun spoke as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. Not a flicker of hesitation on her face. I screamed internally. Oh, for hell's sake. A bath. Together. What kind of deranged situation was this?
"U-um, Master! Th-that's..." I stammered — and in front of my fumbling, Seol Hayun just kept on beaming, bright and guileless.
And so I found myself trudging off to the Ice Guild's hunter bathhouse alongside Seol Hayun. Perhaps because the hour was so early, the two of us were the only people in the vast bath hall. Standing before the steaming pool, I swallowed dryly. Thanks to the Fox Mask, not only my face but my whole body was now flawlessly female. Judged by appearance alone, there was nothing the least bit strange about this scene. The only problem was that my head remained exactly what it had always been — a twenty-year-old man's.
Seol Hayun, clothes shed, walked toward the water without a stitch on, and I momentarily had no idea where to put my eyes; my gaze drifted aimlessly through the air. Up at the ceiling, then down at the floor, then over at the wall. All the while, I kept chanting to myself. I am a woman right now. Yes, damn it, I am a woman right now. This is just two women simply taking a bath together — a perfectly ordinary situation. But things are never as easy as the things you tell yourself. My body may have become a woman's, but my brain was still every bit a twenty-year-old man's. And above all, if I got caught here, it would mean a death sentence at absolute minimum. Even if the law said nothing of the sort, Seol Hayun's personality made it obvious she would never let me off. If my identity were exposed this very moment, I might well end up as an ice statue in some nameless corner of an unknown dungeon, preserved for all eternity. Entertaining those delightful scenarios, I lowered myself into the bath as naturally as I could manage.
Some time passed after I submerged myself in the water. It was Seol Hayun who spoke first, addressing my thoroughly rigid shoulders.
"...Thank you."
It was a sincere voice, a little different from her usual tone.
"...For what?"
"Honestly, I've wanted a little sister ever since I was little."
Seol Hayun kept her body half-sunk in the water, gazing up at the ceiling as she went on.
"Hunting is a job where you throw your body into everything, you know? Somewhere along the way, I noticed that when women bathe together like this, completely bare, we just come out feeling closer afterward. That's why I suddenly hit you with such an unreasonable request. Thanks for going along with it."
"...It's nothing, really."
"And I came on a bit strong earlier. If you're okay with it, I really do want to treat you like a little sister of my own."
The expression on her face as she said it was unexpectedly earnest. Those usual sharp, hunting-dog eyes had softened — if only for this moment.
Let me pause and clarify one thing here: the "Lee Seoan" I was disguised as was twenty years old. Seol Hayun was twenty-one. So in terms of age, she had been the older sister from the very start. What's more, she had known me since I was seventeen — back when I first began working as an artifact crafter — meaning we were already three years into this strange acquaintance.
"...Then let's do it that way. I don't mind, either."
And just like that, I gave my consent in a daze. Well, sworn sister or whatever. In my current circumstances, cooperating obediently seemed like the safest possible option — even if the truth came out later. At that, Seol Hayun's face lit up all the more. Apparently she had concluded that I had opened my heart to her, too.
"Great. Then, since we're already in the bath together — shall we each share a secret? Just between us girls?"
"...A secret?"
But at that exact moment, my heart dropped straight through the floor. Had she seen through my identity? Was that why she was making this cursed proposal? The suspicion flashed through my mind like lightning.