The Eye of Truth Sees Through Lies
“Ohohohohoho!”
The moment I discovered a B-class hunter from the Venus Guild inside a dungeon that had undergone a Chaos phenomenon.
The very first thought that crossed Han Sora’s mind was a single, simple one.
“Damn it. This is going to be a headache.”
She had no desire to end up like a shrimp caught in a whale fight.
Her goal had been straightforward: slip into a dungeon whose difficulty had suddenly spiked, confirm the increased rewards, quietly take what she could, and get out.
Instead, what she found was a Venus Guild party on the verge of total annihilation.
And right in the middle of it all, a B-class hunter who had apparently carried the entire burden to the bitter end—collapsed in a pool of his own blood.
“This… there’s no saving him.”
She wasn’t a doctor.
But after years as a hunter, she had seen more than her share of people dying. She could tell the difference between injuries that still had a chance and those that had already crossed the line.
And this one had crossed it long ago.
His limbs were bent at unnatural angles. Blood kept bubbling from the corner of his mouth.
But worst of all was his abdomen. It looked as if something vital had been scooped out entirely; the area was grotesquely sunken.
He looked less like a living person and more like a corpse that simply hadn’t received an official death pronouncement yet.
“Still… as fellow hunters, I suppose the least I can offer is a bit of mercy.”
It was unfortunate, but Venus Guild members were not Baekho’s responsibility. Even so, she couldn’t simply pretend she hadn’t seen him. She fired a rescue flare—the kind every hunter carried before entering a dungeon—and considered her duty done.
Then she got out as fast as she could.
Lingering at the scene any longer might lead to the misunderstanding that Baekho had attacked a Venus Guild B-class hunter. Not to mention the fact that sneaking into a rival guild’s managed dungeon was already dangerous enough.
But a few days later, while cautiously checking on the situation, Han Sora heard something she could hardly believe.
“They… treated him?!”
He had survived.
That B-class hunter.
Of course, he had been rushed into the ICU and would need time to recover, but the word “survived” had still been attached to his name.
It made no sense.
Han Sora had completed her foundational hunter training in Western Europe, a region considered centuries ahead of Asia in hunter systems. She had witnessed countless dungeon accidents, hunter traumas, and dying men.
That was exactly why she had been so certain.
That injury could not be fixed.
No ordinary surgery or healing technique could manage it. It would require a miracle on the level of forcibly dragging a dead man back to the world of the living.
But if there truly was a doctor who had pulled it off…
‘Could they… fix that person’s wounds too?’
Han Sora’s eyes changed.
Because there was someone she desperately wanted to save.
If the doctor who had saved that B-class hunter was real, then perhaps there was hope for that person as well.
So for an entire week, she dug through every piece of information she could find about Daehan Central University Hospital.
Official announcements.
Press conference footage.
Hospital access logs.
The Hunter Trauma Center’s duty roster for that day.
And finally, the person who had been closest to the surgery itself.
She found Na Hayeong.
In order to locate the real lead surgeon.
And to bring that doctor to her side by any means necessary.
But.
“No, I’m telling you—I’m the one who treated him.”
“Ugh…!”
Han Sora was genuinely getting a headache.
She had thought she was almost there. She had been convinced the answer was right in front of her.
So where exactly had things gone so wrong?
Han Sora’s unique skill, Veritas Eye—also known as the Eye of Truth.
Its roots lay in combat.
The exact moment an opponent’s breathing faltered. Where their gaze shifted. The precise sequence in which their muscles contracted right before an attack.
Veritas Eye read all those minute changes and predicted the enemy’s next move. It was a combat precognition-type skill.
For an ordinary hunter, that would have been the end of it. Dodging attacks, striking openings, landing counters a beat faster. That alone was powerful enough.
But Han Sora was different.
She hadn’t limited the ability to the battlefield.
Just as a body trembles right before swinging a sword, it also trembles right before telling a lie.
No matter how well someone controlled their expression or steadied their voice, the heart reacted first. Breathing lost its rhythm. Fingertips betrayed their owner.
Han Sora read all of it.
She had taken a skill meant for combat prediction and carefully refined it for psychological warfare and information gathering.
As a result, after countless interrogations and negotiations, Veritas Eye had become far more than a simple combat ability.
And Na Hayeong had a very distinct habit.
Tap. Tap.
Whenever she lied, she unconsciously tapped her desk twice with her fingers.
Han Sora had already confirmed the tell through hospital CCTV and press conference videos.
Yet here they were.
“I really am the one who treated him.”
Tap. Tap.
“That’s a lie!”
“No, I’m telling you it was me.”
Tap. Tap.
The situation was becoming infuriatingly twisted.
“So there were three people in the operating room?”
“No, there weren’t.”
Silence.
“…Huh?”
The fingers didn’t move.
It was the truth.
“Was there a doctor who snuck in from outside?”
“There wasn’t.”
Silence.
Truth again.
“What about an unofficially invited overseas hunter specialist?”
“There wasn’t.”
Silence.
Truth once more.
Han Sora’s smile gradually froze.
Na Hayeong’s claim that she had done it herself was a lie.
But the claim that no other doctor had been in the operating room was also a lie.
The claim of no external invitation was a lie too.
That meant there really had only been two people inside.
Na Hayeong.
And the male medical student who had recently entered the university and briefly appeared in the news.
His name was… Seo Jihoo, wasn’t it?
But he was just a man.
‘There’s no way that guy performed surgery on a B-class hunter.’
That wasn’t deduction—it was pure insanity.
A fragile man who would faint for three days straight after merely seeing a corpse had opened a B-class hunter’s chest and stopped abdominal bleeding?
It was impossible.
“I really did treat him, okay?”
Tap. Tap.
“Ugh…!”
And that was another lie.
Han Sora felt the urge to clutch her head.
Na Hayeong was lying. There had been no other doctor in the operating room.
Then who on earth had done it?
“Professor Na Hayeong.”
“Yes?”
“Was that male medical student truly nothing more than an assistant?”
“Yes. Well… he was an assistant.”
Tap. Tap.
“No he wasn’t!”
“I mean, he did assist, so it’s not exactly wrong.”
“Stop playing word games!”
Han Sora ground her teeth.
Then, as if she could take no more, she squeezed her eyes shut.
This hospital.
It was far more vicious than she had imagined.
To hide a monster doctor by using even a male medical student as a smokescreen…
Just who was this person they wanted to conceal so badly?
‘Fine.’
Even if the sky were to fall, there was always a way out.
‘I’ll pierce that shield myself.’
At that moment, Han Sora’s deduction veered off in a completely ridiculous direction.
Before long, the special observation program at Daehan Central University Hospital was drawing to a close.
Three more days.
If I could just endure three more days, I would safely advance to my second year.
Of course, none of it had been easy.
“Jihoo, won’t you reconsider? The Hunter Trauma Center needs you!”
“I’m opening a private clinic.”
“Ugh… Then I suppose I have no choice but to cross the line!”
“In that case, I’ll report you to the Ministry of Male Affairs.”
“Eek?! That terrifying department that grants every male request except turning women into men?! But I can’t give up…!”
Na Hayeong visited me almost every single day.
Come to the university hospital. The Hunter Trauma Center is basically your home. If you become my assistant, I’ll give you an entire operating room to yourself.
She said all sorts of wild things that made my head spin just listening to them.
“Haa…”
That day, after barely shaking off yet another persistent recruitment attempt, I was returning to my apartment under the escort of the Male Homecoming Service.
Apparently, in this world, it was common sense that a man walking around alone at night was unthinkable.
Thanks to that, I had been forcibly escorted the entire way from the hospital to my front door.
I was tired of the observation program, tired of Na Hayeong, and tired of this world’s overprotective system for men.
So I told myself I would finally relax once I got home. The moment I opened the door and stepped inside—
“Ohohohohoho!”
“……”
I froze right there in the entryway.
A woman was sitting on the living room sofa.
She was clearly wearing a modified hanbok.
But it was no ordinary one. White fur trim adorned the shoulders and sleeve cuffs, and while the skirt line maintained the neatness of traditional attire, it was exaggerated in a way that resembled a Western dress.
Her hairstyle was even stranger.
Instead of an elegant updo that would suit Eastern clothing, she had drill-shaped curls straight out of a subculture.
Oddly enough, it didn’t look tacky.
In fact, the bizarre combination somehow suited her perfectly.
Haughty eyes.
Thin, upturned lips.
The way she covered her mouth with the back of her hand as she laughed.
If I had to describe her in one word, it would be suspicious young lady.
…Or rather, suspicious madam?
Anyway, that was the impression she gave.
“Hehe. I’ve been waiting for you, Seo Jihoo.”
“…A male stalker, then.”
“How rude. I am not a stalker. I am a guest.”
“People don’t usually call uninvited intruders who break into their home ‘guests.’”
I quietly reached for the doorknob again.
Best to leave first.
Then report this to the Male Homecoming Service.
Or should I contact the Ministry of Male Affairs? The police? The Hunter Association?
While I was weighing my options, something suddenly caught my eye.
“My name is Han Sora.”
“……”
“I am an A-class hunter from the Baekho Guild.”
She went on about the Baekho Guild this, being an A-class hunter that, and the reason she had come to see me.
But honestly, barely half of it actually registered.
Instead—perhaps because of my occupational disease—my attention was drawn to her right eye.
‘Only one side is bloodshot.’
It was extremely subtle. Most people would have dismissed it as simple fatigue.
But upon closer inspection, the condition of both eyes was clearly different.
Her right eye blinked far more frequently.
Every time her gaze moved toward a bright light, her eyelids reacted first. Several times while speaking, her hand twitched upward toward her eye before stopping.
The movements of someone who wanted to rub their eyes but was consciously holding back.
It was a common reaction when the cornea was irritated.
“Excuse me. Have you been blinking your right eye a lot lately?”
“…Pardon?”
“There are times when only one eye becomes slightly bloodshot. Every time you look at a light, your eye squints first. And I’ve seen you reach for your eye area several times only to stop yourself.”
The moment those words left my mouth, Han Sora’s smile froze solid.