Chapter 25
Chapter 25
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 25
Chapter Title: Indoor Class (4)
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The Black Dragon Clan's training ground was located in the outskirts of Gyeonggi Province, a little ways from Seoul. Ichigaya Ichie was confident she could make her own way there, but the clan—distrusting a foreigner's navigation skills—sent Seong Ha-yeon to escort her personally.
Seong Ha-yeon and Ichie ran into each other in front of the subway station amid a haze of cigarette smoke. Ha-yeon's silver hair was still drawing stares from passersby. Spotting Ichie approaching, she ground out her cigarette under her shoe heel and tossed it into a trash can. Then, flipping her hair back, she said,
"Oh, konnichiwa."
"Korean greetings are fine."
"Yeah, right. Hi."
"Hello."
Ichie bobbed her head politely in greeting. She glanced around once before asking Seong Ha-yeon,
"Where are we headed now?"
"To the training ground, obviously. They said there's some kind of written exam at the academy this time? The academy's gotten so complicated. Don't you think?"
"No idea."
It was far too outdated a question to ask Ichie, who was still a freshman at the academy. Realizing it made her sound older, Seong Ha-yeon cleared her throat awkwardly and started walking toward the subway. She scanned the route map on the platform. The TV mounted there was playing an ad for a health drink endorsed by an S-Rank Hunter.
[Even I, an S-Rank, make sure to drink this matsutake mushroom juice!] Seong Ha-yeon couldn't hide the smirk tugging at her lips. Ichie was staring at the route map. Ichie had heard Japan's subways were complicated too, but how would Korea's seem to her? Seong Ha-yeon asked,
"What do you think of the Korean subway? Hard to ride?"
"At first, the station names were tough to read. But now it's fine."
Ichie nodded as she said it. Then the conversation lapsed again. Seong Ha-yeon racked her brain for a topic that might work with a Japanese outsider. Before she could come up with one, Ichie spoke up first.
"So, what do we do when we get there?"
"When we get there... Well, guilds send monsters as research samples, or sometimes clients want them alive, so we capture and protect them. At the training ground, they release a few that had their client requests rejected, show off their ecology, teach how to kill them—that sort of thing."
It was like a hands-on experience center. The only issue was that everything you experienced was a deadly monster. Just from the explanation, Ichie seemed plenty intrigued. Seong Ha-yeon added,
"Pretty much every major guild has a system like this. Why waste a live-captured monster by just killing it?"
"Are there high-rank monsters too?"
At Ichie's question, Seong Ha-yeon's face stiffened, and she shook her head firmly.
"Nope. Anything B-Rank or above can't be captured alive. It's the law. C-Rank usually isn't either. At best, you might see D-Rank."
"Why not capture them alive?"
"Too dangerous, and they all look like total freaks."
"That dangerous? The guidebook doesn't even cover A-Rank and up."
"A-Rank ones... Uh..."
Seong Ha-yeon shut her mouth. She thought for a moment before saying,
"You'll see for yourself someday."
"Have you seen an A-Rank?"
"Once. I drove to pick up our clan leader, and I saw a corpse there."
"What was it like?"
"Kinda... hard to believe something like that could be alive and moving."
Seong Ha-yeon stopped talking and looked up. She tapped Ichie's knee and said,
"Let's go. We need to transfer at the next station."
"Okay."
After two transfers, the pair finally arrived in front of the Black Dragon Clan's training ground. It was a repurposed unused gymnasium, with every entrance except the main gate sealed off with steel beams and stone, and even the corridor windows boarded up like they were prepping for a zombie apocalypse. With the lights blazing bright in the gloomy halls, the whole building felt oppressively eerie to Ichie.
Passing through the stuffy lobby air brought them to the gymnasium center. Massive iron cages stood there, patrolled by constant surveillance staff—all wearing bizarre uniforms emblazoned with a black dragon. Ichie pointed at the outfits and asked,
"Uniforms?"
"They get super embarrassed if you point them out, so just pretend you don't notice."
Seong Ha-yeon decided not to mention how those uniforms had nearly become the clan's official attire before fierce backlash demoted them to internal-use only. No need to bring it up—the Black Dragon Clan was embarrassing enough as it was.
The iron cages were scattered around like some illegal animal handler's den. They looked haphazard at first, but closer inspection revealed four distinct zones. Zone 1 held monsters still negotiating with clients. Zone 2 had those with deals finalized, ready for pickup. Zone 3 housed failures headed for disposal.
Zone 4 was empty—it was for sparring matches between caged monsters and junior hunters, supervised by seniors. She waved at a staffer who was working.
"Hey, how's it going?"
The staffer spotted Seong Ha-yeon and unleashed a torrent of complaints like he'd found the perfect outlet.
"No. It's not going well. Some asshole requested a Strong Boar capture, so I sent it the usual way, right? But the psycho claims a leg's broken and files a complaint. How do you catch a Strong Boar without breaking a leg? And the cages sturdy enough to hold it ain't cheap. Either pay up proper or give a slight premium over acquisition cost, but... Ah... Sis—no... Uh... What was it? Ha-yeon senior. So, what's up?"
Her face twitched briefly at "senior," then smoothed out.
"Here for training."
Seong Ha-yeon jerked her thumb back, where Ichie was peering around at the caged monsters, searching for something. Safety lines kept a mandatory distance between her and the cages. The guild member squinted at her.
"Hey, you. No greeting your senior?"
The guild member suddenly barked at Ichie in a stern voice. Ichie, who had been staring at the monsters, turned with a baffled look and pointed at herself.
"Me?"
Seong Ha-yeon smacked the back of his head. She glared at her junior with utter disbelief.
"What the hell, moron. She's not one of ours. You pull that shit on rookies?"
The guild member protested indignantly.
"Come on, basics are basics. I didn't ask for anything weird. A greeting's standard, right? Yu-jeong too, and you, senior—you're both too soft on the kids."
"...Ugh, annoying. Idiot. I'm taking her to check out monsters, so grab the logbook."
Seong Ha-yeon shooed him off, then excused him to Ichie.
"He's not a bad guy. Just... a bit off in the head."
Ichie said nothing. She was thinking she'd never set foot in this place again. Seong Ha-yeon took the logbook from her junior and resumed scanning the monsters.
"We've seen Jungle Cats plenty, so skip those. Let's do this one today."
Seong Ha-yeon pointed to a cage holding a pitch-black monster that looked like it had crawled out of an ash pile. It was about human height, with only its eyes glowing white—an unsettling sight. Ichie eyed the monster, then glanced around again. She'd been searching for something since they arrived.
"What're you looking for?"
"Su-hyeon oppa. Where is he?"
"Oh, him? He's not coming today."
"Huh?"
Ichie blinked her round eyes in surprise, then asked again, as if she'd bungled the communication and gotten the wrong answer.
"Su-hyeon oppa. Not coming today?"
"Yeah. Not coming. It was just you on the schedule. Some mix-up? Hang on. I'll call Yu-jeong now."
Seong Ha-yeon left Ichie there and dialed Kim Yu-jeong. It was the weekend, and she was off-duty, so she'd pick up for sure. Seong Ha-yeon figured something got lost in translation during their chat.
"Hello?"
"Haa... Haa... Yeah. Ha-yeon unnie. Why're you calling?"
Seong Ha-yeon frowned at Yu-jeong's breathless voice. Working out? As she gathered her thoughts, a man's voice came through the receiver.
"Senior. Who's that?"
"Ha-yeon unnie. You saw her before."
"Ohhh... That Seong Ha-yeon Hunter?"
"Yeah. Yeah."
It was Jeong Su-hyeon's voice. Seong Ha-yeon let out an incredulous chuckle. Yu-jeong hadn't explained yet, but she could guess what was happening behind her back. Seong Ha-yeon cut in before Yu-jeong could respond.
"Yeah, okay. Have fun. Got it."
The moment she hung up, Ichie scurried over and asked,
"He's not coming?"
"He was planning to, but something urgent came up. He said to tell you he's sorry."
"Oh."
Ichie seemed a little disappointed. The droop of her eyes said it all. Seong Ha-yeon found the situation amusing. The two headed back to the Shadow cage to start the monster practical. To check out a monster, you logged the serial number, submitted it, and opened the cage under staff supervision.
"This one's called Shadow. Too fancy a name, huh?"
As the guild member opened the cage, Seong Ha-yeon commented. Ichie nodded in agreement.
"Yeah. Doesn't fit. Something about 'super black' would suit it better."
"...It was originally Blackman, but they changed it for being racially insensitive."
Ichie nodded silently. The practical was just beginning.
And at the same time, Jeong Su-hyeon was conducting his own practical training at Kim Yu-jeong's place.
With his body.