An Introduction. Meeting a Pervert.
Right after having a deal rejected for the absurd reason that the quality was simply too good.
"Mana Coal is typically used to melt metals that carry mana."
Team Leader Myo took a sip of coffee, as if preparing to explain, then continued in that characteristically expressionless way of hers.
"If the mana contained in a metal is one, the coal needed to melt it also requires a mana rating of one. Think of it as a one-to-one ratio — coal and metal, matched by the mana they hold."
He already knew that.
Kang Yul had researched every angle of the subject while preparing to sell his coal. And that research had only strengthened his conviction: coal with enough mana that even a worm would rear up and acknowledge it was bound to sell for a fortune.
Reality, however, had other ideas.
"Every mineral discovered inside a Gate is priced according to the purity of the mana it holds. Coal is no exception."
Team Leader Myo studied the lump of coal in her hand with those bright yellow eyes as she spoke.
"If we take the highest-mana coal ever found in any mine to date as a nine, then the mana in this coal is twenty at the absolute lowest. Which makes it something the Association cannot readily handle."
In the end, what she wanted to say boiled down to one thing: coal this overpowered was too much of a liability to buy, sell, or use — so she wasn't interested.
"…"
Having heard her out, Kang Yul found his expression hard to manage. He racked his brain for something — anything — to say, but after being thoroughly beaten down by the facts, nothing came. If he hadn't been busy performing the role of "slightly rude but highly competent underground hunter Kang Yul," he might have bolted straight into a Gate, thrown his arms around the worm, and burst into tears on the spot.
But that moment didn't last.
"So I'd like to make a proposal."
There's a saying in Korea: you have to hear someone out to the very end.
"I know a blacksmith. She won't buy coal in bulk the way the Association or a corporation would, but she might take small amounts. If you're interested…"
"I am! Interested!"
Kang Yul shot up from his seat and answered with full force before she had even finished. When money was on the line, he had no room left to play the rude-but-capable underground hunter. For him, cracking open a new buyer was worth abandoning the whole persona.
"…I see."
Team Leader Myo regarded him with an inscrutable look.
"Shall we go now, then?"
"Pardon? Right now?"
"The blacksmith's workshop is nearby."
"In the middle of the city?"
"Yes."
With that spare reply, she rose and started walking. Kang Yul fell in behind her in silence. They walked for about ten minutes in an awkward hush, without a single scrap of small talk between them.
A ripple —!
"?"
Kang Yul suddenly felt as though he had crossed something. When he looked around, the scenery had already changed.
Where is this? It doesn't quite feel like a Gate…
He took in his surroundings carefully. Soft earth gave underfoot along a dirt path, and old-fashioned hanok buildings lined either side. A place this alien, sitting in the heart of the city. A clear sense of wrongness prickled at him, and he shot Team Leader Myo a sidelong glance.
"…"
She simply kept walking toward somewhere, her face as blank as ever, as if nothing were amiss.
Should he ask? Or swagger along as if he already knew everything — staying in character as Rude-but-Capable Underground Hunter Kang Yul? The two selves in his head collided and argued without end.
"We've arrived."
"?"
Her voice pulled him out of his thoughts. Looking around, he found himself standing before a massive gate — easily four times his own height.
That's enormous…
It was so large it was almost intimidating. Even so, a part of him couldn't help wondering what a house like this would cost as he stared up — and that was when a great wooden plaque hanging above the gate caught his eye.
Kkaebi Workshop…?
So this was the nearby blacksmith's forge Team Leader Myo had mentioned. And "Kkaebi" — that had to have something to do with dokkaebi…
"We're going in."
…Team Leader Myo. You're moving way too fast. At least give a person a second to think.
But rather than voice anything that undignified, he simply followed in silence. The blacksmith's true nature didn't matter much to him anyway. As long as someone bought his coal, he didn't care whether that someone was human or a dokkaebi.
Crunch — crunch —
Crossing the gate behind Team Leader Myo, he found an interior as vast as the gate itself. True to a workshop, the courtyard was stacked with heaps of charcoal and tools whose purposes he couldn't begin to guess.
"This way."
Following her deeper in, a wave of heat blasted out — and there, in front of a massive furnace, was the back of a woman who seemed wholly absorbed in her work.
Kang Yul asked carefully,
"She looks like she's in the middle of something."
"It's fine. She hates outsiders coming in while she's working, so she'll put the hammer down soon enough."
"?"
Kang Yul wasn't sure he'd heard that right. An "outsider," while she was working? If that was true, they hadn't called ahead at all — they'd just walked in uninvited…
"Stray Cat. How many times have I told you not to come in while I'm working?"
…In which case, the murderous look the homeowner was now leveling at her uninvited guests was only natural.
"I know. But it was an emergency. I had no choice."
"Haa… And how many times have you shown up saying that when it actually was an emergency?"
"I've come a total of seventeen times. Of those, three were acknowledged as genuine emergencies."
And this wasn't even the first offense — she was a repeat offender. They hadn't even started talking coal, and they were already on the blacksmith's bad side. Was that going to be a problem?
A strong premonition settled over Kang Yul that this deal was not going to go smoothly.
A moment later —
Clang —!
"Tsk. So what is it?"
The blacksmith set down the lump of iron she'd been working with a sharp, irritated motion and turned toward them.
And in that instant —
"?"
"Uh… hello?"
Their eyes met, and Kang Yul offered an awkward greeting. The blacksmith froze for about three seconds, then frowned and turned on Team Leader Myo as if to demand an explanation. Or rather — she was about to.
"Stray Cat. Who the hell is this man you just dragged into my workshop without — wait."
The irritated glare she'd been fixing on him stopped cold. Then she strode right up into Kang Yul's personal space and began looking him over as if inspecting something she'd never seen before.
"Excuse me a second."
And just like that, she started patting him down, groping here and there as if searching for something.
"W-what are you doing?! Where do you think you're touching —!"
"It'll be over quick, so just hold still. If it really bothers you, I'll let you feel me up fair and square when I'm done."
"What kind of ridiculous logic is that?!"
Kang Yul resisted with everything he had. He did not have the kind of peculiar tastes that would make him enjoy being manhandled by a complete stranger he'd met five minutes ago.
His thrashing, unfortunately, was utterly futile.
Is this a blacksmith thing? How is she this strong…!
The muscle of a mage whose hobby was mining stood no chance against a blacksmith's strength. He was left to endure a thoroughly humiliating stretch of being groped from head to toe.
How long it went on, he couldn't say.
"Ohh…?"
The blacksmith looked at a gem set into her palm, murmured, "I knew it…," and turned to Team Leader Myo.
"Stray Cat. Where on earth did you dig up someone this distinguished?"
"?"
But after reading Team Leader Myo's reaction, she muttered, "What, you brought him here without even knowing…?" and promptly sank into a monologue of her own, as if vanishing into a private world.
"Taking a human form on purpose suggests an interest in humans, but the reaction is far too… Ah — did you wipe your own memories? But Master always said Earth Dragons care about nothing but the ground itself……"
Watching this unfold, Kang Yul edged half a step behind Team Leader Myo and whispered,
"Is that blacksmith… all right?"
"She does that when she concentrates. You needn't concern yourself."
"No, not that. I mean the part where she just groped me."
"That's a first for me as well. Perhaps Hunter Kang Yul is simply her type."
"What do you mean by —"
…He couldn't finish the sentence. It was almost certainly not the case — but the remote possibility that Team Leader Myo might be right was enough to leave him speechless.
He eyed the blacksmith uneasily, seriously considering whether he should just run for it right now —
"Excuse me. Honored one."
Having finished her private musings, the blacksmith addressed Kang Yul as "honored one" and began treating him like a respected elder. For a moment he was simply baffled — why was she acting like this toward him? — and then her next words made him forget the persona entirely and panic in earnest.
Because —
"Would you consider living here with me? I'll do anything within my power for you."
"Excuse me?"
"Oh — is that a yes? Then starting today —"
"Excuse me? No — no? I don't want to? Why would I?!"
"…Ah, is that so? Tsk. A shame. I was hoping to soak up some of your aura."
She rubbed the back of her neck, looking sheepish, and started muttering under her breath. "What a waste… Or wait — he's in a human state, so maybe I should just eat him outright…? He looked pretty weak earlier…"
Kang Yul stared at her and thought:
First she proposes cohabitation on sight, and when that fails she starts talking about eating me…? Th-this woman is a complete pervert!
Kang Yul, age twenty-three.
For the first time in his life, he felt his virtue under genuine threat.