The Ice-Cold Beauty
A long corridor stretched through the basement of the Hunter Association, doors set at regular intervals along both walls. As we came down, an employee in a knit sweater, dark navy suit, and slacks was waiting to greet us — a tall, well-built man who had to be six-foot-three. If he'd been a beautiful woman, I might have shown some interest. Cocks, however, did nothing for me.
"Hello. Are you here to register?"
"Yes. I'm only registering as a Dungeon Hunter. She's here to register as both a General Hunter and a Dungeon Hunter."
Sujin pointed at me as she spoke. The man nodded and checked his wristwatch. Frustrating as it was to admit, the sight of a tall, good-looking office worker glancing at his watch had a certain cool to it. The watch itself looked obscenely expensive. This guy was probably a Hunter too.
Just because this was the Hunter Association didn't mean every employee was a Hunter. Ordinary people made up the overwhelming majority. Hunters were vanishingly rare to begin with, which meant this man was clearly someone important even within the Association.
"There's still about ten minutes. The morning test starts at ten. Would you mind waiting in the lounge for a moment?"
"Of course."
At Sujin's reply, the man nodded, turned, and led us down the hall. I followed behind him, scanning both sides of the corridor. It was a clean hallway befitting a modern office, but with no decoration of any kind — just doors attached to bare walls in a sterile, inorganic row — it also looked uncomfortably like a psychiatric ward.
"This entire floor is used as test rooms. The specifications of each room vary depending on the Hunter's ability, and we have every type of test room required for ability testing. Ah — I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Do Minjun, Section Chief of the Registration Management Department at the Hunter Association. A pleasure to meet you."
When the man offered his belated self-introduction, Sujin and I gave our names in turn.
"Shin Sujin. It's a pleasure."
"Baek Jaeseong."
Unlike Sujin, who tacked on a friendly greeting, I just stated my name. It absolutely was not because of an inferiority complex. I had no reason to feel inferior to a guy like that. I was the master of Power of Sex.
The man — I'd already forgotten his name — led us to the far end of the corridor. We walked at an easy pace, but it still took a good five minutes. You could feel the sheer scale of the Association building. The hallway wasn't a perfectly straight line, either; winding stretches accounted for some of the distance.
A table and chairs had been set up at the end of the corridor, large enough for quite a few people to sit and rest. I couldn't figure out why a lounge like this was stuck at the far end of the hall. If it had been at the entrance, we wouldn't have had to walk all this way. Looked like a design error to me.
Several types of document forms were arranged by category on the table. The man handed me a blue-backed form and a red-backed one. He only gave Sujin the red.
"This document is for General Hunter registration, and this one is for Dungeon Hunter registration. Please fill them out according to the form. Pens are provided on the table. I have some test-room preparations to make, so I'll step out for a bit. I'll be back at exactly ten o'clock."
With that, he left us there and walked off toward the opposite end of the corridor. I turned my attention to the paperwork. Two forms to fill out, both of them demanding a rather thorough accounting of my personal information.
"You brought all the documents, right?"
I nodded at Sujin's question and pulled a document envelope from my crossbody bag. I set the papers I'd brought beside me and filled in every field of personal information, then came to the section on abilities. In the space labeled Ability, I wrote Light Control.
The form noted that if you didn't know the name of your ability, a detailed description would suffice — but I knew for a fact that mine was Light Control. I finished both forms and checked my watch. Still seven minutes left.
"Sujin, you done?"
"Yeah. It's barely any different from the general registration."
I'd been planning to spend the remaining time copping a feel of Sujin's ass when I sensed a presence from the other end of the corridor. Thinking it might be that employee from earlier, I turned my head — but it was someone else. From the silhouette alone, this person was the complete opposite of that six-foot-three giant.
"Huh? Is this someone else here for the test?"
Sujin murmured it to me under her breath. I watched the figure approaching from a distance. A woman — even shorter than Sujin.
She had a slender figure to match her small frame, but the slightly upturned corners of her eyes carried the steel of a strong-willed woman. Her bob, falling just past her shoulders, was as white as her skin.
Hair you would never see on a native Korean. Dyed, maybe? Her face was doll-small, features delicate and compact — she'd probably make it big as a fashion model. She walked toward the table where we were sitting.
"......"
A chilly aura radiated from her tightly closed lips. Even at a glance, she didn't look like someone who talked much. She cast her gaze over the stack of forms on the table, then took one blue sheet and one red. Like me, she must have come to register as a Hunter for the first time.
"Kinda scary to even say hello..."
Sujin seemed to be thinking the same thing I was. Well, when someone put that much distance between themselves and everyone else so blatantly, you couldn't help it. Since she clearly had no interest in being spoken to, we stayed quiet. The atmosphere was exactly that of a lofty noblewoman.
I stole glances at her from the corner of my eye. The vibe was cold, but she had looks too good to pass up. A woman I'd want to get my hands on if I could. The icy atmosphere actually suited her appearance so well that it didn't put me off in the slightest.
She must have noticed me looking, because she turned her head toward me. A hint of irritation sat in those clear eyes.
Staring too obviously, was I? Instead of backing down, I gave her a faint smile. The corner of her lip dropped. She didn't seem pleased. I casually looked away. Whew. A coldness sharp enough to cut.
"Sorry to keep you waiting. Oh? Another applicant has arrived. Not many people come on weekends, but today we have three. Let's get moving, then."
The employee reappeared. I checked the time — exactly ten o'clock on the dot. A frighteningly punctual man. As expected of a Hunter Association employee.
"Have you prepared the necessary documents?"
He asked as we walked down the corridor. I pulled Sujin's papers and mine from my bag and handed them over. The doll-like woman took documents from her shoulder bag as well. The employee flipped through our papers with a rapid flutter and nodded.
"You've prepared everything thoroughly. Excellent."
There were more than one or two pages, yet he riffled through them the way you'd count a stack of bills. Did he have some kind of ability related to that? From a third party's perspective, it looked like he'd just checked the page count. Well, he was an Association employee — he probably didn't do sloppy work.
He stopped at the midpoint of the corridor. Following him, we stopped as well.
"We'll start with the General registration test first. On weekdays the rest of the staff would all be in, so we could run tests simultaneously, but on weekends only the duty personnel come in, which means we have to conduct the tests separately. I'm sorry, but Miss Shin Sujin, you'll need to wait a bit. I'll open a test room for you in advance. Please wait inside."
He opened a door. I peeked in — a large, empty room. Truly nothing in it. With the white wallpaper, it looked like a psychiatric isolation ward. Waiting in a place like that seemed worse than the lounge from earlier.
"The rest of you, please follow me. Mr. Baek Jaeseong has a Natural-type ability, and Miss Ahn Lina has a Material-type ability, but it looks like you'll be able to take the test in the same room. That's fortunate. It takes about ten minutes to power up a test room, and running multiple rooms is quite a hassle."
This ice-cold beauty's name was Ahn Lina. Good information. I glanced at her, but she didn't spare me so much as a look. Instead she turned her head away with an air of annoyance — a kind of bratty dismissal you'd never find in Sujin. I was wanting this woman more and more.
"Here we are. Please come in."
We finally arrived at the test room. Stepping inside, a wide chamber unfolded, the ceiling far higher than any ordinary office.
The difference from the previous room was a scarecrow standing in the center. A broad space walled in white, with nothing but a single scarecrow sitting there — that had an eerie atmosphere all its own. A room that could have been lifted straight out of a horror movie. I half expected the thing to flash crimson eyes, unleash a storm of crows, and come charging straight at me.
"The General Hunter registration test is actually simple. You just need to prove you can use an ability. Mr. Baek Jaeseong. Miss Ahn Lina. Who would like to go first?"
At the Association employee's words, Lina stepped forward without so much as glancing at me for my opinion.
"I'll go first."
With a lofty expression, she claimed her turn as naturally as breathing. Then she snuck a glance at me. She really hadn't appreciated me eye-fucking her, apparently. Hmm. Had I been a little too high-handed? I should probably restrain myself a bit.
The employee looked at my face, seeming a little flustered. Lina's behavior was autocratic, with not a shred of compromise in it — but she was a beauty, so it didn't matter. I nodded as if it were no big deal. The Association employee spoke with a slightly awkward expression.
"Well, that's fine. We'll start with Miss Ahn Lina, then. Ah — if you'd prefer to keep your ability private from the person next to you, please let me know. In principle, each ability user's ability is confidential, but... well, if you work together in the industry, it naturally comes out. You might even meet at the training academy later."
He said this while looking back and forth between Lina and me.
"I don't mind."
Lina answered, staring at my face for just a brief moment. An expression like she was looking at a bug. Seeing those eyes, I wanted to throw her on the floor and ravage her without mercy. I'd have to try it if I got the chance. If I got the chance, that is.
"Very well. The test is simple. Please attack that scarecrow with your ability. Normally you'd only need to prove you can use an ability, but since both of you are scheduled for the Dungeon Hunter test, please attack with as much power as possible. The ability power demonstrated here will affect the Dungeon Hunter test results."
"Understood."
Lina answered briefly and stepped forward. The way she walked, white hair fluttering, was as elegant as a fashion model's. The Association employee swallowed hard, seemingly captivated by her beauty as he watched her from behind.
Lina looked at the scarecrow with sharp eyes and extended her hand. A calm, precise, and cutting motion. She might have trained in some martial art.
The Association employee and I both focused our gazes on the tip of her hand. Centered on her outstretched right hand, a crack formed in the air — and from that crack, something black shot out, flying toward the scarecrow like a bolt.