No Such Thing as a Peaceful Vacation
And so.
Once the exams were over and I'd finally chewed through every last item left on the academic calendar, the day of the closing ceremony arrived.
Contrary to all my worrying, the first semester had come to an end without anything actually happening.
No. That can't be right?
What do you mean it can't be right — you might as well have held a full sacrificial rite begging for something to go wrong.
Seoa, are you listening to this? I'm telling you, it can't be. The terrorists were obviously planning to cap the closing ceremony with an explosion.
Ugh, come on!
Aaagh.
Thus did I, muttering my conspiracy theories, eventually surrender before Seoa's Iron Claw.
But really, I'm not being paranoid here~
Just look at this past semester alone, for crying out loud.
It's not that I make a fuss over nothing — it's that those bastards are genuinely insane. If anything, shouldn't Choi Seungjun and Lee Joongoo be the ones accused of having zero sense of danger?
Speaking bluntly: fine, suppose such an organization exists. Would they really go so far as to storm the Academy?
They did storm it, though?
Ah, stop twisting my words! That was just because they didn't know I was there!
Whoa, why are you putting me on the spot like this? She's suddenly flying me up into the sky.
Well, she's not exactly wrong.
Yeah, hearing it laid out like that, I do look like someone pretty damn impressive.
The real problem, though, was that the prime threat they'd been counting on was Choi Seungjun.
It was certainly true that the Academy's teaching staff was far too luxurious a lineup for a mere school's faculty.
That said.
Even so, S-ranks aren't common.
Given the overwhelming force those bastards brought, of course they would have focused their marks entirely on Choi Seungjun.
But things were different now.
After all, you had me and Seoa added to the mix, and.
Now that even Tiamat — avatar or not — had joined the fold, the situation was almost certainly an unwelcome surprise for them as well.
The Academy's defenses had swollen to frankly excessive proportions compared to the original plan.
In other words, things were no longer at a level where they could accomplish anything by picking off Choi Seungjun alone at this point.
Or is it Hayeon you're worried about?
Well, yes, I do worry.
A while back, I'd told the students in our little circle about the story connecting her to Seoa's guild. Seoa herself had said she didn't mind, and in exchange I'd let slip a bit about my own circumstances.
Thanks to that, Seoa now had a rough idea of the situation surrounding Hayeon as well.
And even by Seoa's read, apparently my attitude was coming across as rather agitated.
Still.
Anxiety was the bigger part of it.
Anxious?
No, that's not what I mean.
The fact that they weren't attacking — well, fine. Good.
But does that really mean they've truly let go of everything?
Asked that question, I had no choice but to shake my head.
A question of risk and return.
As far as the facts had come to light, that organization had shown up at the orphanage roughly a dozen-odd years ago, entrusted Hayeon to them, and vanished.
Why on earth would they leave her behind if they were going to hunt for her this desperately? Or maybe circumstances forced their hand. Or perhaps there was even a traitor within the organization — who could say.
Either way, though.
According to what we'd learned, they had asked the orphanage to raise Hayeon for exactly sixteen years — the full span the law of this country would allow.
And they'd come bearing a hefty sum for the trouble, no less.
The question was, had something gone wrong?
On the very night Hayeon finally left the orphanage, she slipped out of their grasp — and to secure the runaway girl, they had released monsters.
Hayeon herself couldn't remember what had happened, but the whole affair reeked of something deeply suspicious.
Their handling of things afterward made it worse.
Had they been her legal parents in the eyes of the law, even I would have been left with no choice in the matter.
But instead of coming through the front door, they threw in S-rank-and-above heavy hitters one after another.
A girl of barely sixteen.
Far too much firepower to spend on one girl who didn't even know she had awakened as a hunter.
Which meant that organization placed at least that much weight on securing Hayeon's person.
All the more so considering the roster they'd mobilized for the attack.
They had, in effect, been firing blank checks at her — promises written on scraps of paper that could never be honored.
And now, after all that, they were just going to give up?
No — if giving up were ever an option, they wouldn't have flung around so many empty promises in the first place. They'd have cut their losses long ago.
Which left me with no choice but to nurse a premonition: something was being worked in the shadows.
Damn it. I'd honestly feel better if they'd just come storming in.
Things that end once you beat down the enemy in front of you, and things that don't.
Compared side by side, the uncomfortable one is always the latter.
Not that I feel like some busybody worrying himself sick over it or anything.
I let my gaze drift casually over the faces of the students passing by.
After the closing ceremony had wrapped up, students were trickling out in twos and threes.
And there wasn't a trace of worry on any of them.
Which made sense.
Setting aside that one tabloid-ish article that had made the rounds, nothing had actually disrupted the Academy's schedule so far.
The worst of it had been the commotion during the practical class, and even that hadn't amounted to much of a problem for most students.
After all, the prevailing view still held that gates were acts of God — natural disasters, nothing more.
The very gate that had caused all the trouble had even been reopened, hadn't it?
The brawl with the Monster Worship Cult, Chairman Choi Seungjun's remarks about embracing mixed-blood students — to most, they were nothing more than juicy gossip.
And all this smiling, carefree ignorance — how much sweat and blood had gone into building it?
Standing there before the fruits of all that effort, the hardships I'd endured should have washed away like dirt under a stream. Washed away, my ass. Thinking it over carefully, it was still a colossal pain in the ass.
Those lunatics. Dumping monsters on us with zero thought — is that real life?
Had they really sent only monsters, I might have actually been in a better mood about it.
As I mulled that over, I noticed Hayeon approaching from ahead, waving her hand toward me.
"Teacher!"
Perhaps because other students were watching.
Unlike usual, Hayeon's voice came out openly, calling me by that formal title.
The slightly awkward expression on her face looked almost amused — I could see her smiling faintly, fiddling with the corner of her mouth. When I waved back, careful not to draw too much attention, her blue hair came bobbing up to me at a light jog.
Having already stood here acknowledging greetings from a few other students, I found I could nod along with what even I considered a pretty natural air about me.
"Guess you're all finished, huh?"
"Yes. I said my goodbyes to the others too."
"Good to hear. I was worried you were getting the cold shoulder from your classmates."
"Seriously, why do you say things like that?"
"What, you skipped class without permission once, remember?"
"What does that have to do with Yoonha all of a sudden?"
"Huh? You're the one being way too much here."
"It's fine. Even if people do keep their distance from me, it's almost certainly because of my diagnosis."
"Well, when you put it that way, I've got nothing to say."
Watching Hayeon complain like a child sulking, I found myself raising both hands in surrender before I knew it.
All because of what happened when Kim Minchul abducted her a while back.
Yes, I'd beaten Kim Minchul to a pulp — but that didn't erase the fact that Hayeon had been absent from school.
Which meant I needed to establish some reason that would shield her from suspicion on the spot.
A reason compelling enough to justify a sudden absence.
And simultaneously, a condition she could return from immediately without any lasting complications.
Run through every possibility, and only one answer remained.
Hair loss.
Thanks to that, the furtive glances from her classmates in the days right after Hayeon was discharged had been quite the spectacle.
Of course, I was the one dying inside the whole time!
The moment Hayeon learned the truth, she refused to speak a single word to me for the better part of a week.
The day I explained everything to the rest of the club, she'd had her forehead planted on her desk with a face like a funeral pall — need I say more.
Good thing I picked hair loss instead of hemorrhoids, or I'd genuinely be dead right now…
Even in that frantic moment, my split-second judgment in choosing hair loss over hemorrhoids deserves nothing but admiration.
Anyway, hearing that she'd said her goodbyes to everyone else was a relief.
Thankfully, there had been no Hayeon weeping while chanting grow, hair, grow.
Though in exchange, there was a Park Woochan taking verbal abuse from the girls. Such is life.
"Oh. Heading home too, Hayeon?"
"Yes, Hunter Shin Seoa."
"Hm. You could just call me Seoa-unnie, you know."
"No, ma'am. Public and private matters should be kept strictly separate."
"…Mmhm, I see? Well, let me know when you head out. I know it's for reasons beyond your control, but you're a boarder at our house now, after all."
"Oh, thank you. Honestly, I've been thinking the same thing. If it hadn't been Teacher who saved me, what would have become of me?"
"Wouldn't it be more like, what would have become of him — as in, if he hadn't saved you?"
"I suppose you could phrase it that way too."
Seoa was chatting with Hayeon just as easily as she did with anyone.
It was nice that they got along, but even so — with listening ears all around, bringing up the boarding house like that?
Uncharacteristically careless of Seoa.
Well. It is the closing ceremony.
People were bound to loosen up.
First Academy term of her life — teachers and students alike, anyone would be worn down by now.
"Hunter Shin Seoa, aren't you heading home soon?"
"Ah, even you, Sabu? It's not like anyone doesn't know I'm your disciple."
"Fine, fine. Have it your way. So — Hayeon? Go on ahead."
"…Yes. I'll see you at home."
Look, no matter what anyone says, using the closing ceremony as a shield to walk home with Hayeon was simply not an option.
So Seoa and I left through the front gates before Hayeon did.
Naturally, Hayeon would follow behind us before long.
And of course, my sensory perception was tracking Hayeon's position more sharply than ever.
Gosh, what I'd love to say is: every single commute of mine is a suspenseful infiltration operation, you bastards.
But with the Kim Minchul incident barely days behind us, I couldn't even afford to say that much.
Man, live long enough and here I am experiencing high school summer break all over again.
"Don't talk like some old geezer who's seen it all. You haven't even been working here that long."
"Hey, that's exactly how it feels! Anything you do for the first time is hard. Got it?"
Not that she was wrong, really.
"So, Sabu. That reminds me."
"Hmm?"
"Do you have any plans for the break?"
"Are you feeding me to something right now?"
"What would I even have against you?"
A surge of genuine indignation rose in my chest.
Then, waving her hand as if it were nothing at all, Seoa opened her mouth again.
"No, no — it's just, I was thinking maybe we could do something together over the break!"
"Huh? Nah. Not interested."
"…Huh? Wh-what? Why?"
"Listen carefully, Seoa. Your Sabu, you see, wants to do absolutely nothing."
"Wh-what's that supposed to mean? Wait, no, isn't that literally what you do every single day when you get home from work?"
"Heh. Such is the word of my sky-high Sabu. Who am I to question it?"
"Yep."
"Tch. Lose the nasal voice. So — now that break's actually here, you want to do nothing more aggressively than usual, is that it?"
The look of bewilderment that had been plastered across Seoa's face shifted into an expression of pure contempt for me.
"What. What is it, what."
"In that spirit, I've been giving it some thought, you see?"
"What insane nonsense are you about to spout now?"
"No, it's just — lately I've felt so battered by unfamiliar things. Starting today, I think I'll go into summer hibernation."
"What the hell is summer hibernation? Hibernation in reverse?"
"Yep. So wake me up when the new semester starts. I'll be sleeping until then."
"You're serious."
The look of disdain, now doubled in intensity, carved straight through my heart.
But I meant it.
So serious that I couldn't recall ever having felt this way since I first grew hair on my head.
Whether it's fun to look after kids, whether it's meaningful in its own way — I don't know anything about any of that. All I know is, the moment I started working, I wanted to rest.
In my humble opinion, the people who blather on about their jobs being a chance for self-actualization are, come Monday morning, drafting their letters of resignation.
"Hold on. Teachers don't actually get the break off, do they?"
"What? Really?"
"I'd assume so? Well, it's better than term time, but still."
"Seriously? I'm going to kill Choi Seungjun."
But the instant Seoa's words registered, I felt strength drain from my entire body — the sensation of grasping, all at once, every injustice the world had to offer.
Choi Seungjun, you son of a bitch. What are you even doing?
Can't you reform the education system starting now?
"Anyway, Sabu. Want to take a commission with me?"
"A commission?"
"Yeah, a commission."
"What's a commission?"
"Huh?"
"No, I mean, what is it?"
At my blank follow-up question, Seoa tilted her head, then began laying out the background behind this particular request with a glazed look on her face.
Something about noise from her departure from the guild, something about needing to take on work to announce that she was still active and around…
As I listened to a story that was the exact opposite of what I wanted to hear, it finally clicked.
Ah. Right. That thing did exist, didn't it.
Come to think of it, the Association definitely had such a system in place.
A structure that took commissions streaming in from all across the country, funneled through the Association, and distributed them among hunters with time on their hands.
Literally, a one-stop service desk for hunters.
Everything from various worksites that needed hunter labor, to — back during the Great Invasion — full-blown monster subjugation contracts.
For someone like me, who'd only registered with the Association relatively recently, it was a fairly alien topic.
Well — I'd heard of it, sure.
I'd simply assumed it would never concern me in this lifetime, and filed it away in the mental recycling bin.
"Holy shit. The Hunter Association is insane. You're telling me there's a whole system for formally taking on monster extermination contracts?"
"I've been worried you might have gone insane just now, Sabu."
A primitive man beholding a smartphone for the first time.
Or, from the other side of the coin, a civilized man watching that primitive man.
If I had to name the look in Seoa's eyes right now, it would be something along those lines.
But to me, it was genuinely earth-shattering news.
My god — I just have to stand there, and monster sighting reports come to ME?
I felt like a Chilean uncle seeing Japan's taxi system for the first time — the kind of man who smacks his own forehead in disbelief.
Incredible. Absolutely incredible…
"So, are you going?"
"Obviously. Oh, wait — what was the commission again?"
"I literally just explained it?!"
"Sorry, sorry. So, what is it?"
Seoa looked about ready to foam at the mouth, but I asked anyway.
I mean, what if the request that came in this time was simple construction-site grunt work?
Fulfilling, sure. But more than that — I want to kill monsters.
I've hunted countless monsters in my day, but right now I was in the mood to slaughter them more actively. To wipe out monster colonies in glorious bulk.
"Ugh, for real. Okay — the request came in from somewhere around the South Sea."
"The South Sea?"
"Yeah. Word is, there's a strange fog rolling in, and apparently an island that moved?"
"Man, that takes me back. If it weren't for that bastard Lee Joongoo, the whole Korean Peninsula would be walking upright right now, throwing out happy punches left and right."
"Uh, what? That's the first I've ever heard of that."
"Ah, it was classified. Don't go repeating it anywhere. So?"
"No, hold on, aren't you letting that go way too easily? Anyway — apparently there's a gate in that exact area, of all places."
"Ooh! A gate gone rampant?!"
"…Sabu, why are you so happy about that?"
"Happy? Who's happy? You've clearly mistaken my deepest sympathy for joy. So — what's the job?"
"First, one commission to inspect the gate. Second, if any monsters have slipped out of it, subjugate them. How's that sound?"
"Perfect."
A moving island in the South Sea.
Off the top of my head, I could already name several monsters that fit the bill.
Thanks to Seoa, it looked like this summer break wouldn't be boring either.
Well, given everything she'd just said, I suppose I'd need to set aside some spare days separately.
"I don't mind either way, but can I even tag along? You're the one who received the commission, not me."
"Yeah, it's fine, it's fine. Just report it separately. You're a hunter too, Sabu."
"Well, if that's settled, then I'm more than happy."
"So we're going, then?"
"Guess we are."
"Yes!!"
Like a certain legendary manager who forged the myth of Korean football, Seoa fired a triumphant uppercut into empty air.
Watching her, I couldn't help but let a chuckle slip out.
Looking at her like this — she really is still just a kid. That's what I thought.