Chapter 19
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 19
Chapter Title: If You Just Set Your Mind To It?
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11 a.m.
A bit early for lunch, but the perfect time to grab a bite.
Jin Sea was driving the sports car that Haetae Guild had provided her as an S-rank hunter toward Yoo Seon-woo's counseling office.
It was a surprise visit.
Wouldn't he be delighted to see her?
The sunlight pouring in through the window was dazzling. The weather was bright and clear—ideal for a meal with Seon-woo.
Originally, she'd planned to drop by yesterday before he headed to Union Guild for his house call. But she hadn't wanted to interrupt his first official job, so she'd held back until today.
That restraint had only swelled her anticipation even more.
Jin Sea knew he'd awakened a new ability.
Thinking back to that clumsy, adorable test run on her brought a smile to her lips unbidden.
She was curious. About him, and about his new power—everything.
'No need to ask first.'
He was surely agonizing over it alone right now, wracked with guilt even without her saying a word.
The moment he saw her, he'd fidget and apologize first for using his ability on her without asking.
That was Yoo Seon-woo's personality.
Terribly kind. Sometimes it worried her.
Lost in thought, she arrived at the building before she knew it.
She parked haphazardly and headed inside.
But just then.
The very moment she rounded the corner on the floor with Seon-woo's office...
- Screeech!
The office door flew open roughly, and someone burst into the hallway like they'd been shot out of a cannon.
Snow-white hair. A vivid red bridge of the nose.
A face Jin Sea recognized: Luna, the otherworlder from Union Guild.
Her entire face flushed crimson down to her neck, she bolted straight down the hall, staring dead ahead.
She didn't even notice Jin Sea standing right there.
But S-rank hunter Jin Sea heard it.
And she was still hearing it now.
- Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!
Luna's heart pounding like it was about to explode.
All of Jin Sea's senses were zeroing in on the frantic sounds erupting from her.
"……."
The playful smile faded slowly from Jin Sea's face.
Her expression blank and emotionless, she alternated glances between Luna's retreating back and the firmly shut office door.
Her golden eyes gleamed coldly, like a predator spotting traces of a rival female in her territory.
She knew it intellectually.
Ever since he'd become an official counselor, contact with female patients was inevitable.
But at least, to Jin Sea's senses, that heartbeat just now...
But then.
- Creak.
The office door opened again.
"Huh?"
A man's voice. Yoo Seon-woo.
In that 0.1-second sliver where she heard him, Jin Sea schooled her expression instantly.
Her cold gaze curved into soft half-moons. Her tight lips bloomed into an endearing smile.
She was back to the Jin Sea everyone knew.
"What brings you here without a heads-up?"
Seon-woo, peering into the hall, spotted her and grinned like he was thrilled.
"Came to eat!"
Jin Sea beamed back just as brightly.
A room filled with pink furniture.
Pastel-toned wallpaper and cotton-candy curtains.
At the bedside stood a carrot-shaped plushie as big as she was, standing silent guard alongside her one and only friend, the stuffed sheep To-soon.
This was her rabbit burrow, shielding her from all the world's dangers and prying eyes.
Luna lay buried in the deepest part, on the fluffy bed, sheets pulled up over her head as she stared at something.
A laptop, no less.
She'd been here long enough now to handle this bizarre thing called the internet.
Of course... she'd deliberately avoided searching for info on herself.
It terrified her. The flood of hate and contempt—same as back in the Empire—that would pour out when she typed "beastkin."
She lacked the courage to face it.
But today was different.
She would confirm it with her own two eyes.
Whether Teacher was right.
Luna's trembling fingers typed in the source of the video he'd shown her yesterday.
"Hun... ter..."
She swallowed dryly, whispering so faintly it was barely audible.
- Click.
The screen changed with the click.
And there unfolded a world Luna had never known.
Title: Hunter Awakening Prayer Day 119.
Title: Otherworlders are just gonna keep coming, right?
Title: If you're gonna keep posting male hunter pics, fuck off to the male hunter gallery.
This place had no race, no borders, no classes, no status. Pure, chaotic freedom.
Anyone alive who could type could make their voice heard.
"Ah..."
Luna let out an involuntary gasp.
A strange sense of freedom washed over her.
Then, in one corner of the screen, a magnifying glass icon caught her eye.
It said "Search."
Luna cautiously... typed the word that had shackled her whole life into that tiny box.
'Beastkin.'
Enter.
A flood of posts appeared.
Title: Elise the hunter's tail twitching compilation. gif
Title: Dating a wolf beastkin review
Title: Debunking the theory that beastkin rut lasts 365 days
Title: Current beastkin otherworlder hunter rankings
Varied forms and styles, but not a single bad word about beastkin.
If anything... it leaned toward adoration.
However.
Title: But honestly, isn't it fact that beastkin physicals are making it tough for pureblood hunters to compete?
Luna's heart jolted.
The flow screamed backlash against beastkin hunters stealing spots from native hunters.
Steeling herself, she clicked.
TL;DR: Pureblood awakeners like me, the toilet paper thieves, have way less ground to stand on now.
'...Toilet paper thief?'
Luna tilted her head. It made no sense. Why bring up toilet paper theft when discussing established hunters' positions? Confused, she scrolled down.
Sorry, but beastkin physiques are just insane.
From rabbit beastkin Elise to fox beastkin Elena. Their bodies are already gg lmao.
And below that: several explosive swimsuit photoshoot pics of her twin sister Elise and another fox beastkin hunter.
(Photo)
(Photo)
(Photo)
Pwaaaaaang lmao
Can't hold back grrrrr...
The instant she read that last line, Luna understood everything.
The meaning of "toilet paper thief." What "position" meant. Why they kept harping on physiques and bodies.
Luna's face flushed crimson again, down to her neck.
"Te... Teacher..."
Unthinkingly, she called out to the absent man in a voice thick with hot breath.
And slowly, her hand rose to trace her shoulder.
The exact spot where Seon-woo had gripped her that morning.
But Luna didn't even realize what she was doing.
So this post wasn't saying beastkin were stealing jobs from established hunters.
It was saying beastkin were stealing the role of objects of male desire from them...
She was staring at this bewildering scene from under her sheet-covered head when—
- BANG!
The door flew open without a knock.
"Sis!!! What're you doing!!"
The one being who could invade her sole sanctuary without permission.
Her twin sister, another rabbit: Elise.
- Thud!
With those words, she launched herself onto the bed, right on top of Luna huddled under the sheets.
"Eek?!"
Luna yelped at the sudden weight.
Elise giggled like it was hilarious, yanking the sheet away.
"What're you looking at so intently all by yourself... Oh my?"
Out came her sister's beet-red face—and on the laptop screen, a fashion mag feature on S-rank hunters.
Elise herself, licking ice cream in a swimsuit. From that event shoot last time.
"What's thiiiis?"
Elise leaned in with a mischievous grin to inspect.
Her playful gaze naturally drifted to the comments below the screen.
"……?"
Elise started reading.
Her eyes widened briefly—then she burst out clutching her stomach.
"Ahahaha! What, sis? Staring at my photoshoot? Reading these pervy comments too?"
"N-No! I-I was just confirming if it was real..."
Luna desperately tried to close the laptop, but Elise was faster.
She locked her arms around Luna's waist to pin her, then whispered the nasty comments right in her ear, hot breath and all, one by one.
"Ah~ Rabbits' ears... grip 'em tight... so they can't move... then like thiiiis... rawr... raaaawr..."
"No! Nooo!! That's not it!!"
Luna flailed, nearly in tears, but Elise only hugged tighter, more gleefully.
It'd been ages since sis reacted this intensely—Elise was having a blast.
And in that hold, she read the next one.
"Next up~ Lemme see... See a flushed beastkin rabbit on the street? 100% just drag her... Wow... These guys don't mess around?"
She snorted a laugh.
Elise was used to lecherous stares from Empire nobles or fans' teasing vibes, but this raw, primal lust? It'd been a while.
She looked down at her sister in her arms, who'd stopped resisting.
Luna hung limp like an overheated engine, face boiled red, red eyes unfocused like her mind had flown away.
Elise prepared her final blow.
The strongest push to nudge her sister—who was finally taking one step toward the world—forward.
"Ooh... But there's one solid fact here. Right, sis?"
Luna barely lifted her dazed head.
Elise whispered softly in her ear.
"Our species' instinct onset... If you just set your mind to it, 365 days a year..."
"……."
"How'd they know?"
With that, Luna passed out.