Hunter Association (2)
"No one's watching, so let's speak freely, Team Leader Banharin. How are your missions going these days? Everything proceeding smoothly?"
Underground level 2 of the Hunter Association. Restricted access area. The director and Banharin walked down the silent hallway devoid of people, conversing.
"No anomalies...... However, it seems we need to reissue the 'target's' ID. We recently confirmed that the gender listed on the ID is incorrect."
"Hm? What, was she a woman? Well, her appearance is ambiguous enough to confuse anyone... Got it. I'll pull some strings."
The first topic was Eunha, Banharin's 'protection-execution target.' Banharin walked the corridor, her face still hidden behind a pure white mask.
"Thank you."
"She's the Hunter Association's treasure, after all. This much is only natural... Remember this well, Team Leader Banharin. She is the mother goose that lays the goose that lays the golden eggs. Provide her with every convenience possible."
Banharin bowed her head in acknowledgment of Director Go Young-in's words. The silent corridor filled with an oppressive pressure that made it hard to breathe.
A truly valuable treasure. Not a golden egg, nor the goose that lays golden eggs. But the mother goose that birthed the goose that lays golden eggs. A jewel more radiant than anything, brimming with infinite potential.
A golden egg? You can share it with others. The goose that lays golden eggs? You can show it off. But the mother goose? You can't show her to anyone. You make it so no one even knows she exists.
And... if there's even a chance of her being taken away, you'd destroy her with your own hands first.
"It's a project we've invested three years in. The day the Hunter Association stands tall against the pressure from the major guilds isn't far off."
"......"
"So, Team Leader Banharin, just keep protecting 'her' without thinking about anything else, like you are now."
"...Understood."
The director spoke kindly, urging her to protect Eunha. Banharin accepted the mission assigned to her like a machine.
She didn't know what value the Hunter Association saw in Eunha. Why they had designated her as the 'target' of the Rare Hunter Protection-Extermination Squad.
Because she had only been ordered to protect and monitor Eunha; she hadn't been briefed on the exact details.
Just protecting Eunha. That was enough for Banharin.
'Lady Eunha... I wonder what she's doing right now. Probably up to some ridiculous nonsense, as usual.'
Banharin recalled Eunha's face, always wearing that drowsy smile.
Probably getting ambushed by alley cats' pincer attack on her way back from the convenience store, handing over her canned tuna. Then claiming she hated tuna anyway for a hollow victory.
Or maybe sulking because she couldn't open the lid on the strawberry jam she finally bought.
Thump. Thump.
Why was this? Her heart was racing.
Her beautiful face, her smile that made anyone who saw it happy... The more she thought of them, the warmer a corner of her heart grew.
A fragile person who would crumble if an A-rank hunter like her applied even slight force. Weak and insignificant like a lightweight teddy bear, easily dragged around.
But always positive, always smiling.
......The corners of Banharin's perpetually expressionless mouth lifted ever so slightly.
"Thanks to her remaining an F-rank hunter, the past three years passed quietly, but you never know. The moment a major guild or foreign power catches on to 'her value,' it'll be a headache... Ah, Team Leader Banharin, you're doing splendidly as always."
"......"
"When the time comes, I'll issue the 'execution order,' so handle it quietly based on the situation...... Well, since she has no family, just eliminate the cafe owner where she works, right? An ordinary person who hasn't even awakened a skill."
"......"
But at the director's following words, Banharin's face returned to its usual coldness.
She didn't respond.
"Haha, still as stiff as ever. The problem with you, Team Leader Banharin, is that you're too serious. People need to joke around to live, or your beauty goes to waste, doesn't it?"
"......"
"Good grief, it feels like I'm talking to a wall... You aren't still just monitoring 'her' from afar, are you?"
"......Unnecessary contact with the 'target' only hinders the mission."
With that, the conversation ended, and the Hunter Association director and A-rank hunter walked silently through the restricted area.
The place they headed to was the 'screening room' in the restricted access area.
A location for reviewing and analyzing the association's top-secret footage. Perhaps because few people visited, the interior of the screening room felt rundown. It was like a mix of an archive storage and a server room.
Near the entrance, a table held a PC and printer, and beyond a glass partition, a massive server hummed ominously.
As the director and the woman in the pure white mask entered, a curly-haired young man who had been glued to his PC jumped up from his chair and bowed deeply.
"Director, you've arrived!"
"I heard the incident footage has been restored. Found anything?"
"Well... We managed to restore the footage as best we could, but the CCTV from the artifact incinerator couldn't be recovered."
"So, successful restorations are the management office, second-floor hallway, and stairwell footage..."
The young man, standing at attention to greet them, stepped aside and pointed to the PC he had been watching.
The PC monitor showed the Artifact Management Department scenery... and Kim Song-a, the hunter trimming his nails at his desk.
Banharin fiddled with the mask on her face and asked the young man,
"Is it safe to view?"
"Y-yes! Right after restoration, we showed it to a villain in custody here at the association. No issues."
Showing it to a villain first to check? Quite ruthless.
Bzzzt.
If it's confirmed safe, no need to worry much.
Banharin activated her skill, her golden eyes gleaming as she examined the problematic footage.
The day of the incident. CCTV footage right before Kim Song-a's death.
In the video, Kim Song-a, oblivious to his impending doom, peacefully groomed his nails.
Leaning back in his chair so far it bent—that wasn't his first or second time slacking off.
Banharin scrutinized the CCTV footage until her eyes ached.
She had already memorized the layout and structure of the Artifact Management Department.
Any anomaly, however slight, or difference from the norm—her Observation skill would catch it instantly.
'No notable irregularities yet. The incident should occur in a few minutes. What on earth happened to Hunter Kim Song-a...'
One minute passed, two minutes... three minutes.
Kim Song-a was still lounging at his desk, slacking off.
"......?"
What? Why isn't anything happening?
The incident time arrived.
Kim Song-a, playing a mobile game, let out a big yawn, stood up, and left the office.
They hurriedly switched to the second-floor hallway camera footage.
Kim Song-a emerged from the office, hands in pockets, shuffling down the hall, then descended the stairs to the first floor.
Stairwell camera footage.
Upon reaching the first floor, he went down to basement level 1 and entered the artifact incinerator room immediately to the left.
And... the footage ended.
"......"
As the video stopped, she stared silently at the monitor before turning to the curly-haired young man.
The young man, terrified by Banharin's menacing glare, waved his hands frantically and backed away.
"I-it's really the CCTV from the day of the incident! The control room chief staked his life on restoring it...! I don't know what happened either...!"
"......Understood."
No lies in his words.
Having observed whether the young man was lying, she replayed the footage.
But it was the same.
Kim Song-a, peacefully drawing his salary. Rain falling outside the window. Then exiting the office toward the incinerator...
Banharin fiddled with her mask, her expression subtly twisting.
Why is everything so normal? Was it really just a simple suicide?
......No, impossible.
His corpse's core body temperature had dropped to 25 degrees. There was definitely an unidentified 'cold.'
'Wait...... Rain?'
Then, having observed the footage until her eyes were bloodshot, she spotted the anomaly.
Kim Song-a trimming his nails in the Artifact Management Department office.
Rain falling outside that window.
Yesterday had been clear skies all day.
'Is that rain the source of the cold? But if it rained, others would have noticed.'
Banharin's contemplation deepened.
Whatever it was, this footage was wrong.
Rain that hadn't fallen in reality.
Kim Song-a, normal to an eerie degree.
The contradictions with reality were clear.
Bzzzt!
Banharin ramped up her skill's output.
Yellow lightning flickered at the corners of her eyes as she meticulously observed and analyzed the contradictions before her.
Yes, this footage wasn't like replaying recorded video...
It was more like watching a creepily uniform pantomime of fixed motions...
Crackle!!!
"Ugh...!"
Feeling excruciating pain in her left eye, Banharin urgently deactivated her skill.
Her eyes returned to black, and simultaneously, bright red blood streamed down her mask.
Did she overuse the skill? Or did she see something she shouldn't have?
She couldn't tell.
"Are you alright!!"
"......I'm fine. Could you fetch some gauze and an Emergency Recovery Potion?"
As the curly-haired young man fretted, she removed her mask and pressed her left eye with her palm.
Pain like a spike driven into her eyeball.
She'd need an exam to know for sure, but without using a recovery potion immediately, she risked losing the eye. Even if it healed, she'd be wearing an eyepatch for a while.
She thought so while pressing her throbbing left eye.
'This... is quite dangerous.'
Yes. Dangerous.
Like wandering blindly, stepping on a landmine that blows off your ankle, only then realizing the area is a minefield.
Deeming it too risky, Banharin looked to Director Go Young-in to report her observations.
Come to think of it, the director had been quiet for a while. Something wrong?
"......"
"Director?"
And when Banharin turned her head, she saw the director frozen like ice.
......
"Director? Director Go Young-in!"
"......Uh, um?... W-what is it, Team Leader Banharin?...... Wait, what's wrong with your eye?!"
From the moment they entered the screening room, Director Go Young-in had been staring fixedly at the PC screen, rigid.
He snapped out of it only when Banharin shook his shoulder and shouted.
Startled briefly by her maskless face bleeding from the left eye, he quickly regained his composure befitting his position.
"Sorry. I'll call the medical team right away."
"The potion handled first aid, so I'm fine. More importantly, I have a report for you, Director."
Banharin, pressing gauze soaked in the Emergency Recovery Potion the curly-haired young man handed her to her bleeding left eye, spoke.
Despite the eye injury, she didn't grimace, maintaining her usual blank expression.
Was she really a machine?
Banharin explained her observations in full detail.
The restored footage was anomalous, rain falling outside the window contradicting reality.
And further investigation was dangerous.
"Rain...... It was raining...?"
"......? Yes. Weren't you watching from behind?"
"Is that so. That's how it looked to you..."
But the director's state was off. Slightly unhinged, perhaps...
He kept glancing at the PC monitor, fidgeting restlessly.
As if seeing something different from Banharin.
Suspicious.
Beep-beep~♪ Beep-beep~♪ Beep-beep~♪
At that moment, as Banharin quietly opened her mouth to observe the director with her black eyes, her cellphone rang.
Beep-beep~♪ Beep-beep~♪ Beep-beep~♪
The bizarre ringtone, growing more stupefying with each note, shattered the tense atmosphere.
Banharin, her icy face fixed on the director, pressed her throbbing left eye hard and pulled out her phone from her pocket.
The caller ID on the woman's phone read 'Rat.'
Confirming the caller, she quietly answered.
Beep.
"This is Wolf. I've taken the cal......"
— Team Leader! Big trouble! The 'target' has vanished!!
"......What do you mean!!!"
It didn't take long for the machine-like woman's voice to color with irrepressible agitation.
— We don't know either! She was walking, then suddenly... There's a convenience store in front of Saetbyeol Apartment, right? She vanished while passing it! Location tracking's down too!
"......'Rat,' conduct search operations with 'Owl.' The rest, seal off Euncheon-gu roads. I'm heading there now."
Crack!!
Banharin, crushing her phone barehanded, hurriedly prepared to leave.
Her left eye wound was irrelevant now.
Her 'target'... Eunha had vanished.
She had to find her, even a second sooner.
"W-wait, hold on. Team Leader Banharin. First, get your eye treated......"
"Shut up!!"
Ignoring Director Go Young-in's cautious concern for her injury, Banharin stormed out of the screening room in a fury, seeing nothing but red.
"Good grief...... I can't even rein in Team Leader Banharin."
The screening room, now empty after Banharin rushed off upon hearing Eunha had vanished. Having sent the curly-haired young man away for safety, Director Go Young-in grimaced even more fiercely, rubbing his forehead.
Alone, the server's hum echoed ominously.
He stared at the ceiling, lost in thought, then pushed up his square horn-rimmed glasses and slumped in front of the powered-on PC.
His burly, muscular back looked unusually small today.
Director Go Young-in gazed at the monitor with a complicated expression.
The reason he'd stared silently at the monitor since entering.
The reason he'd fidgeted, barely hearing Banharin's report.
"Third on the right. Down the stairs, then left."
The CCTV footage on the monitor.
In the Artifact Management Department office... 'something' stood.
A woman with massive cracks over her body like an ice sculpture. Her skin was bluish like a frozen corpse, wearing the association's dark gray uniform.
'Since Team Leader Banharin didn't mention 'that thing,' it must be visible only to me.'
'That thing' pressed her face close to the camera, staring straight at Director Go Young-in, murmuring the same words.
The lifeless corpse eyes fixed on him.
Remnants of regret from the past he had turned away from.
The Hunter Association's stain, too filthy to look at.
"......Is that so... It's still raining, then?"
"Third on the right. Down the stairs, then left."
Emotions surged.
Regret, pain, sorrow... and resentment overwhelming it all.
The immense grudge harbored by 'that thing' froze Go Young-in's body.
Flicker. Flicker. Flicker.
The lights flickered twice, and the PC shut off like a blackout.
Had the message been fully delivered?
'That thing' vanished from before his eyes as well.
"......I fled to the light because I feared the dark, only for my path ahead to grow even darker."
Come to think of it, long ago.
About 20 years back.
There had been a similar suicide incident.
Was it hypothermia then too?
"......Resentment, huh."
Murmuring meaningfully, the director sat slumped in the empty screening room, staring endlessly at the powered-off monitor.