The Butcher's Fan
Honestly speaking, I hadn't expected much from the Gangwon Branch itself.
At best, I figured we'd get some training on mountain terrain and call it a day.
But.
Holy shit, this is insane.
Master, please stop doing that weirdly vivid country-bumpkin act……
Unbelievable brat.
Is that any way to talk to a master who's basically a god?
Thinking that, I shot her a sidelong glance, and Seoa waved her hand as if I were the one being annoying.
What a hopeless brat.
Granted, even by my standards this attitude wasn't befitting a modern field trip.
But there was nothing to be done about it.
Inside the pristine white facility, past the point where the mana lines running beneath the floor converged, a map of the surrounding region was floating in midair.
Like a hologram.
Mana—no, to be more precise, it was thanks to the Dragon Line passing through this Gangwon Branch.
The bias in mana generated by the Earth's rotation and revolution.
In other words, a facility built where mana tends to pool uses the mana in the atmosphere as its power source to run itself.
The machine thus activated detects mana reactions beyond the Dragon Line it draws from and outputs them in the form of a map.
Which means, in short, that the positions of hunters and monsters around the branch can be tracked in real time.
Well, that's the theory, anyway.
The reason I was geeking out was exactly one thing.
The display was just so damn cool.
Screens floating weightlessly in the air, wreathed in bluish mana light.
It looked like a scene from some half-baked SF movie people used to imagine before the Great Cataclysm, and there was something about it that stirred the inner child.
If it weren't for those damned monster bastards, would technology like this have been commercialized by now?
Thinking that way, I couldn't help feeling a pang of regret.
Those monster bastards, seriously.
They're absolutely no help at all.
Extinction: urgent.
……Day two of the field trip.
Under the supervision of the instructors, myself included, the students were touring the facilities of the Gangwon Branch.
The Gangwon Branch.
Or the Taebaek Mountains Branch.
However you called it, this branch handled a truly wide variety of work.
Processing hunter-related civil complaints across the Gangwon region.
Managing the various gates in the area.
But the most important task of all was, without question, raiding the dungeons scattered throughout the Taebaek Mountains.
Dungeons.
The vestibules of Gates torn open from other worlds.
Gates, born from concentrated mana, are the single greatest nuisance this world has ever been subjected to.
To expand themselves effectively, gates use the mana flowing in from beyond to summon monsters.
Vanguard and bodyguard.
Simultaneously, creatures that are themselves dense clumps of mana.
Once the summoned monsters exceed a certain threshold, the gate expands itself.
The problem is that gates are also part of an ecosystem.
It would be nice if expansion always proceeded on a tidy schedule, but realistically, that's a tall order.
Monsters thinned out by hunter raids.
Or mana consumed to keep the gate running.
When the books don't balance like that, most gates descend into infighting.
Monsters are, after all, vanguards summoned for the efficient management of a resource called mana.
If the ledger goes out of balance, there's no choice but to lay them off.
And so.
While most monsters tear each other apart to fatten themselves up, the ones expelled from the gate—or those who flee the conflict and turn their backs on it—build a separate ecosystem on the outside.
That is what we call a dungeon.
In a word: the bastards who used to hatch their eggs inside the gate have now decided they'll hatch them outside too, and they're staking their claim.
And the map before our eyes was a tool for raiding exactly those dungeons.
"Now, do you all see the points gathered here? Yes, that's exactly all of you."
The one guiding our little chicks around this time was not Hunter Do Joojin.
From what I heard, it was a guide hired by this facility……
Well, fair enough. If Do Joojin really was a man who sold his soul to monster hunting, as Seoa had said yesterday, he'd be hopeless at this kind of explanation.
'I would know, since I was the same.'
"Ah no, the mana engineering stuff or whatever is insanely hard~"
Me, well—I'm the type who's got techniques drilled into my body, so I don't need to bother with theory or principles when the opponent's a monster.
"Then is there a reason you're leaving the monsters alive?"
"With something like this, it seems like we could raid dungeons too!"
The little chicks chirped away, firing off questions one after another.
Cutting-edge technology really does have something that draws people's eyes.
Well, but.
'That'll be difficult.'
Contrary to the kids' enthusiasm, I couldn't rate this facility's sophistication all that highly.
Detecting mana across a wide area is certainly impressive.
In terms of sheer range, it might even surpass a decent detection-type ability user.
However.
The mana echoes displayed on the map—in other words, the mana holders—were represented only as points.
Which is to say, it lacked precision.
You could tell where living beings carrying mana were in the surrounding area.
Count them, and you could probably tell how many there were.
But you couldn't tell whether each individual holding mana was a hunter, a monster, or just a mana-soaked elixir.
In weather-service terms, this was, at best, a satellite photo.
It's like being handed a shot of the entire peninsula and told to find and sketch the face of a person hiding behind the clouds.
'If it weren't, that woman over there would've been screwed already.'
I glanced over, just slightly.
And there, far off in the neighboring class's line, I spotted Tiamat sneaking a yawn.
As always, she was far too unconvincing to be a goddess.
Well, granted, it would probably be impossible to guess from that appearance alone that the woman was an avatar of a Constellation and a monster to boot.
Anyway.
The actual guide, too, gave an answer along much the same lines as mine.
Though the kids seemed to have their eyes stolen by the guide's flashy hand movements as he manipulated the screen.
They looked exactly like children at a museum for the first time.
Then again, at this level, you could probably open it to the public like a museum.
Meanwhile, the time came.
Lunch.
The morning schedule was officially wrapped up.
"Alright, alright. Don't make the guide work harder than he has to—quiet down!"
"I am not an old man, for your information."
I let the guide's aggrieved protest go in one ear and out the other.
Let's see.
That wrapped up the facility tour and the work briefing.
Which left the afternoon schedule.
Effectively, nothing but practical training.
Having reached that conclusion, I clapped my hands a couple of times.
"It's lunchtime from now, so feel free to do as you like."
"Until when do we gather?!"
"I'll give you an hour, so take your time looking around. Just don't cause trouble for the Association people."
"Yes!!"
"Good, that volume's excellent. If only half that energy went into your studies. Don't forget the teams I assigned yesterday—dismissed!"
At my command, the kids began scattering in every direction, in the same groups they'd been divided into yesterday.
Well, in practice it was only pairs of two.
Maybe "pairs" suited them better than "teams."
'Not enough people, so what can you do.'
Swallowing that thought, I cast a quick eye over the students.
Thankfully, Jihee, whom I'd been worried about, had ended up on Hayeon's team.
The problem was, as always, Yoonha.
As it happened, the remaining two besides Hayeon and Jihee hadn't been paired together.
I knew it couldn't be helped.
The groups assigned during yesterday's after-party doubled as the afternoon practical training teams for day two.
Yoonha and Yeeun had already trained together as a team before.
And no matter what, you can't exactly go around asking for special treatment on the grounds of "I don't really know what's going on, but I've got a bad feeling about this."
'It'll be fine, right?'
If it really didn't sit right, maybe I'd go check on them separately later.
As I was thinking that, the guide—who until a moment ago had been fiddling with his walkie-talkie—spoke up.
"Ah, Teacher Park Woochan?"
"Hm? What is it? How do you know my name? Are you a fan of mine, by any chance?"
"No. Are you famous, by any chance?"
Damn it all.
I'd hoped, just maybe.
But of course it was as expected.
"It's nothing of the sort—there's someone looking for you."
"Huh? Who?"
"It's Hunter Do Joojin."
And so.
An uninvited guest crashed into my lunch hour, just when I'd been thinking it would pass without incident.
Honestly speaking, I couldn't fathom a single reason why Hunter Do Joojin would be looking for me.
I mean, sure, while touring the facilities I'd thought things like wouldn't this make killing monsters easier, picking apart everything I saw.
But surely he wouldn't take offense at that.
"No, you never know. Master, be careful."
"Mm. I don't know about anything else, but your arrogance is out of control. You've certainly got the strength, but……"
"Huh? Teacher Tia, why did your speech suddenly change?"
"……Grandfather used to say that to me, you see!"
"Oh, really? Your family must have been quite impressive."
Bullshit. You don't even have a father, let alone a grandfather.
"Tsk! Teacher Park Woochan, are you mocking me right now?"
"……Well. What can I say. Fine, let's go."
But apparently these two weren't thinking that way at all.
First there was our Seoa, who'd suggested we go eat, then trailed after me in a huddle the moment I mentioned I had a prior appointment.
Our dear disciple, who knew of Do Joojin separately, was wary that this might be some scheming trap by the Association.
What trap, exactly, I wanted to ask her—but for now, I just nodded along.
Good grief, ever since that guild incident, the kid's become a full-blown conspiracy theorist.
And then.
'If it's Seoa, fine, but I didn't expect this one to be the same.'
Maybe it was the burden of having to play Middle Eastern immigrant Tia bint Rahman bin Abdullah Muhammad in front of the other teachers.
Or maybe, having just seen the mana-sensing map, the thief's own feet had gone numb.
Tiamat, who had dialed her power down to just barely above ordinary-civilian level, had joined our side as well.
Then again, maybe she simply had no one to eat lunch with.
"I smell the stench of rude imagination……"
Sniff sniff—the self-proclaimed goddess snorted like a dog.
What a pathetic sight.
I barely stopped myself from unconsciously imitating her.
Unlike monsters who suppress their mana to hide their strength, an avatar can adjust its actual total power at the main body's discretion.
That's also why I can hold a conversation with this woman right now without a single mask.
Even so, the reality is that I'm holding my breath while we talk.
Honestly speaking, it's only to the degree that I might deliberate for about a second before accidentally killing her.
'No, wait, why is this woman following us anyway?'
Does she really not have a single person to eat with?
Then eat alone, damn it~
Call it carelessness on my part, but it's true that I've been deliberately steering their behavior.
Bluntly put: a nuisance.
Could you just piss off? You're exhausting and annoying.
Thinking that, I studied her, but the woman in question only blinked both eyes at my gaze.
No—worse, she was now closing the distance and whispering.
Ugh, shit.
"Fear not. Should anything happen, I shall aid you with mine own power if I must."
Honestly speaking, I suspect her dragging her main body down here to descend would be a bigger incident than anything else.
But did this woman have any reason to go this far for me?
At first it had felt like a simple transaction.
Well, if it's a declaration that she intends to deal with me in good faith, I welcome that too……
The problem is that she doesn't act this proactively in her dealings with the Association.
"Fufu, yes. I know what you are thinking."
"Huh, really? I don't think you have a clue."
"But I would be grateful if you believed it. I am not so shameless as that."
See? You have no idea at all.
I wanted to fire that back, but doing so had one fatal drawback: it would extend the amount of time I spent talking to a monster.
"What have you two been whispering about this whole time? Are you two dating, perhaps?"
Shit, Seoa. You really wanna die?
"Wh-what's gotten into you, Master……"
Anyway.
With Seoa prodding us along, we set off on foot.
I didn't want to ask or hear the detailed reasons, but if the goddess's words were true, there shouldn't be any particular problem.
As long as Do Joojin wasn't some Islamic crusader coming to blow himself up.
And so.
It made for a somewhat awkward picture, but with a disciple clinging to one side and a monster to the other, I headed for the meeting place.
However.
To cut to the conclusion: this meeting was not some unofficial summons from the Hunter Association Gangwon Branch using Do Joojin's name.
Nor, contrary to the worries of Seoa and Tiamat, was it a surprise attack by that organization.
It was, rather, an extremely personal matter.
In other words—
"Hunter Park Woochan, I'm your fan!! Could I possibly shake your hand just once?!"
What the hell?!
Do Joojin.
One of the first names mentioned these days among the next generation of powerhouse hunters.
And at the same time, the very man who had stolen the nickname Butcher from me—was, apparently, my fan.