S-Rank Management
“…Seriously.” Lee Seon-yul snorted in disbelief and tilted her chin. I wondered how to respond, but she spoke first with a soft sigh. “So this is what you do after retiring from active duty? Playing babysitter for that girl?”
She must have noticed. She was S-rank too. If she focused, she could probably hear an ant crawling at her feet. She was just pretending not to know to spare me the embarrassment.
“What can I do? I’m an employee and she’s the boss. When she says jump, I jump.”
Her face was still tight with irritation, but she didn’t seem to have the energy to interrogate me about what Shin Ji-hye and I had been doing inside.
“Move.”
“Sure.”
“…Annoying.”
I stepped aside with an easy smile. Lee Seon-yul clicked her tongue and brushed past me.
“Shin Ji-hye.”
“Seon-yul? What’s wrong?”
“You gave Jin Seong-ah permission to train, didn’t you?”
“No? I never did that.”
“Then who…”
Lee Seon-yul muttered irritably, then slowly turned her head until her gaze landed on me.
“It was you, Yu Seong-eun?”
“…Yeah.”
“Haah…”
“Seon-yul, what’s wrong? Is there a problem?”
“Jin Seong-ah broke four pieces of training equipment this morning alone.”
……Four? She must have built up a lot of stress from yesterday’s gate.
“I told her I was making new ones just for her, so she just had to wait a little…”
“……”
“There’s no one left in the research team, and if she keeps creating more work, I’m really…”
‘No.’ You chased them all away yourself. Even the top PhDs couldn’t last long under her. The workload was brutal, and the moment anyone fell even slightly short of her standards, she kicked them out without mercy. That was why the research and development team was the only department in Yushin Guild with a zero application rate, despite the guild’s thousands-to-one acceptance ratio overall.
I didn’t point that out. I was a gentleman who didn’t air other people’s flaws.
“Seriously, why on earth…!”
Lee Seon-yul was every bit the workaholic Kim Hee-jung was. In fact, she was the original. Shin Ji-hye had once found her sleeping on a folding bed in the corner of the lab, and that incident had eventually led to the 40th floor being converted into S-rank exclusive quarters. She took pride in her work, loved it deeply… until Jin Seong-ah appeared and blew up everything she’d been holding in.
So now she was throwing a fit.
Shin Ji-hye and I, long accustomed to this, simply waited in silence for her to calm down.
“Haah…”
Lee Seon-yul finally stopped tearing at her hair and regained her composure with a deep sigh.
“Anyway, sign this.”
The near-explosion was gone. She looked tired again as she held out a single document. It wasn’t just the training dummies that had been destroyed. The paperwork detailed repairs needed for the entire training facility, including equipment.
Shin Ji-hye scanned it. “Is this all?”
“If you can, try to stop her. Please. There aren’t many left.”
“Got it. I’ll talk to her.”
Lee Seon-yul found Jin Seong-ah difficult to deal with. She was an existence that defied all her predictions. Most of the equipment in the guild’s training room, including the dummies, were her creations. And Jin Seong-ah had broken them all.
“The kid’s gotten stronger out of nowhere. Did you feed her some kind of elixir?”
“No? But Seong-ah really got stronger?”
“At least ten percent, maybe twenty. In terms of raw strength alone, she’s approaching Team 1 Leader’s level.”
“Hmm…”
Shin Ji-hye’s eyes turned to me. Her smiling gaze carried an unreadable meaning.
‘…What?’
A chill ran down my spine. If she found out I’d touched Jin Seong-ah, she might actually try to kill me. An ass-grab wouldn’t solve that problem.
‘Seong-ah will… handle it herself, right?’
She still felt shame, so she wouldn’t tell anyone she’d taken a belly punch and then given a blowjob. I had to trust her for now.
“…From your reaction, it wasn’t you either, Shin Ji-hye.”
Lee Seon-yul whipped her head back toward me, brows furrowed.
“You again? Yu Seong-eun?”
“It’s starting to sound like I did something wrong. I just calmed her down, that’s all.”
Violently, but still. Jin Seong-ah had regained her energy, so calling it “calming her down” wasn’t wrong.
“Did you teach her mana control or something?”
“I told you I didn’t.”
“…Right. Jin Seong-ah’s a physical type. Pure body reinforcement at that. There’s no way she could copy anything you taught her anyway…”
Lee Seon-yul stood there muttering to herself. Shin Ji-hye gave her a wry smile and stood up. She gently placed a hand on Lee Seon-yul’s shoulder and whispered.
“Seon-yul, don’t be so hard on Seong-eun. It’s not that rare for a hunter to suddenly get stronger overnight, you know? Anyway, have you eaten?”
“Why would a hunter eat? It’s inefficient.”
“Come on, people still need to eat. Calm down first. I’ll talk to Seong-ah. I’ll call the care team and have something good sent up, so make sure you eat it. You liked sweet pumpkin, right? How about sweet pumpkin soup?”
This was why Shin Ji-hye was guild leader. Even while rotting inside from suicidal and self-destructive urges, she could perfectly manage the hunters on the surface without showing any of it.
When Shin Ji-hye approached like that, Lee Seon-yul, who had been grumbling to herself, quickly turned into a docile lamb.
“…Fine. Whatever.”
“You haven’t tried the new chef yet, have you? The food’s amazing! Oh, right. Are you going to take a vacation? You haven’t used a single day off since last year. You are at least going home, right?”
“I haven’t been back to my place in a while, so I paid the rent.”
“That won’t do…! I’ll book you a ticket. Go somewhere, even just for a short trip. Where do you want to go? Japan? Europe?”
“……Europe.”
Unbelievable. The same woman who coldly told me to get lost because she was busy was completely obedient to Shin Ji-hye.
After soothing Lee Seon-yul and escorting her to the elevator, Shin Ji-hye returned to the guild leader’s office and let out a sigh.
“Seon-yul must be under a lot of stress too.”
“She has a lot of work.”
The research and development team’s main job was crafting custom gear for A-rank and above hunters. But that didn’t take long. Most hunters used simple weapons like spears, swords, gauntlets, or axes. Everything else was pure research Lee Seon-yul wanted to do herself, and that was what kept the entire team running on caffeine and desperation.
And sometimes, something truly surprising came out of it. In hunter-related technology, Yushin Guild was ahead of the government.
“Seong-eun, Seon-yul doesn’t want guiding, right?”
“Yeah. Says she’s busy. Though I think she just doesn’t want to show what’s inside…”
Lee Seon-yul knew roughly what my ability was. She didn’t know it was limited to desire, but she knew I could see into people. That was why she bristled like a hedgehog around me.
“We should talk to her before she snaps. Today’s tantrum was cute compared to what could happen.”
If she kept ignoring her own body and experimenting until her eyes turned bright yellow, and then actually lost it, no one knew what she might do. I needed to look inside her mind, even by force. Even if I had to ask Team Leader Choi Mi-ra to do it. That woman could see straight into people just by looking.
“Yeah. I’ll ask. Still, you’re the dedicated guide for all the S-ranks, Seong-eun.”
Shin Ji-hye stood up as she spoke.
“By the way, Seong-eun.”
She undid the top button of her shirt, which was fastened all the way to the neck, then pressed her chest against me.
“I’m stressed too… because we got interrupted earlier. Won’t you take care of me?”
……This sly woman.
I grabbed Shin Ji-hye’s ass tightly.
“Even climbing on top of your master now.”
“Hnn…♥”
I slid my hand up from her ass and felt for the buckle at the back of her skirt. Just as I was about to undo it, she started grinding against my crotch.
“We have to go see Seong-ah…♥”
“Once is fine.”
“J-just once…?”
I hadn’t been able to relieve myself properly yesterday either. I’d planned to do it during lunch, but Lee Seon-yul had interrupted. The dark, sticky desire I’d been holding back began to stir again.
“Yeah. Just once.”
Of course, it didn’t end at just once.
#
“Haaaaaaaah…”
“Park Ha-neul Hunter.”
“Hngh… yeees…?”
“Mind your manners. Put the phone away.”
On the runway of a military airport, Park Ha-neul, who had been yawning lazily, nodded at Baek Seol’s words.
“Yes, yes. Haaah…”
“I believe I just told you to mind your manners.”
“What can I do if I have to yawn? It’s a physiological phenomenon.”
Park Ha-neul covered her wide-open mouth with one hand and nodded, still staring at her phone’s messenger app. Baek Seol let out a soft sigh and turned her head.
“Do Yoon-ah Hunter.”
“Y-yes…?”
“Cowering like that doesn’t look good either.”
“Ah, ah… yes.”
Do Yoon-ah, who had been hiding in Baek Seol’s shadow with her shoulders hunched up, stepped slightly to the side. Even then, she was barely visible, peeking out from behind Baek Seol’s shoulder.
“…Park Ha-neul Hunter.”
“Yes~ Leader. What is it this time?”
“Who exactly are you messaging so desperately that you can’t put your phone down?”
“My privacy, Leader.”
“We’re on a mission right now.”
“I know. I know that. The mission will be over in one minute.”
Park Ha-neul jerked her chin toward the airplane roaring its engines on the runway, then looked back at her phone.
“Once that thing takes off, it’s done. Why are you so strict, Leader? Our dear leader.”
“There are reporters and other hunters present. That attitude is inappropriate.”
“Then what, tell them to write articles and spread rumors? Who even cares about that stuff?”
The U.S. Ability Management Agency, the American counterpart to Korea’s Hunter Administration. A plane carrying the director and other VIPs was preparing for takeoff, its engines growing louder.
“Preparing for contingencies is also part of the mission.”
“Yes, yes. If there really was a contingency, our Yoon-ah would’ve already sensed it. Right? Yoon-ah?”
“E-even so, just in case…”
“Did you pick up anything?”
“Right now… nothing…”
Do Yoon-ah muttered in a shrinking voice. Park Ha-neul shrugged her shoulders as if to say “see?”
“It’s fine, she said. You should take it easy too, Leader.”
“…Who on earth are you messaging?”
“I told you, it’s private. Ah, should I just tell you? My boyfriend. We’re going on a date after work today.”
Tap-tap-tap-tap. Her fingers, moving so fast they were almost invisible, suddenly stopped.
“What if my handsome boyfriend gets tempted by someone else? I have to check in… Oh, you wouldn’t know, Leader. You’re a lifelong single, after all.”
“……”
“But you spent decades in another world, right? Don’t tell me you didn’t even date one person there? You’re thirty in Korean age this year, which means you’re basically over a hundred and still a virgin? That’s a problem.”
“…Park Ha-neul.”
“Hii, hiik…”
The air around them turned ice-cold in an instant. Do Yoon-ah, with her especially sensitive senses, hunched her shoulders.
“Y-yes. I’m sorry. I need to mind my manners. It’s what the leader told me to do. Right?”
Park Ha-neul deliberately raised her middle finger and twirled a strand of hair around it. The atmosphere grew even colder, and Do Yoon-ah’s shoulders shrank further.
RRRRRR…!!
Right on cue, the airplane began its takeoff with a thunderous roar. Baek Seol stood straight and watched until the plane disappeared from view.
“…Mission complete. We’re returning.”
“It was nothing special, and she’s making such a fuss.”
“Hiik…”
Baek Seol’s brow twitched, and Do Yoon-ah’s shoulders hunched again. Park Ha-neul, completely unbothered, twirled her hair with her middle finger and walked away without a second thought.
“Yoon-ah, can you handle the report for me? I have a date.”
“U-uh… okay…”
“……”
An unexpected chill lingered on the runway. The Yushin Guild hunters who had witnessed the three team leaders—considered the guild’s strongest—simply prepared to return as if nothing unusual had happened.