The Sad Legend of the Previous Adjutant
Not long after Glass stepped into the kitchen to prepare the meal, a delicious aroma began drifting out toward me.
Come to think of it… how long has it been since I last ate a proper home-cooked meal made by someone other than my sister?
Ever since becoming an adjutant, my meals had been limited to eating out, delivery, or whatever I could throw together myself. Even the food my sister made for me had mostly been simple café-style breakfasts. A real, formal home-cooked meal was something I hadn’t properly received in nearly four years.
I was sitting there, quietly nursing a deep sense of anticipation about the situation, when—
“Hmm-hmm-hmm~”
“Hm?”
The next moment, Gwon-sun came into view, staring at me as if she were watching some fascinating spectacle. With her round eyes she looked for all the world like a curious cat. Finding the sight unexpectedly cute, I carefully asked,
“…Is something the matter? Do I have something on my face?”
“Huh? No, nothing like that. It’s just… we finally have a proper adjutant of our own.”
“A proper adjutant…? What was the previous one like?”
I asked with mild curiosity. Gwon-sun’s expression clouded for a moment before she answered.
“There’s a sad legend about that… no, a bitter story.”
“Pardon?”
“The previous adjutant… that person was really pitiful. Always took full responsibility and did their absolute best, but unfortunately the results never followed, so they kept getting crushed. Effort without efficiency, I guess? In the end that was why they had to quit the adjutant job. Adjutant Jinhyun, you’re the one who came in as their replacement.”
“Ah…”
The story was heavier than I’d expected, and my mood began to sink a little. Having worked as an adjutant for quite a long time myself, I had seen and heard of people like that more than once. It was unfortunate, but planning operations and commanding troops was never easy without talent to back it up. People who failed and fell away despite their efforts were inevitable.
As I felt a pang of sympathy, Gwon-sun continued.
“Just thinking about that person still makes my chest hurt. Staying up all night drafting plans every single time… forcing themselves through work that didn’t suit them at all until they finally hit their mental limit and exploded spectacularly. When I remember that, the tears still well up and— Ow ow ow ow!”
“Huh?”
In the next instant Are stretched Gwon-sun’s cheek out long and hard. For the first time I saw Are’s face turn red with embarrassment.
Wait… hold on. Don’t tell me…
Putting the still-screaming Gwon-sun aside for a moment, I asked carefully,
“Um… Miss Are? That adjutant she mentioned… could it be…”
“…Yes. I-it was me.”
Are answered with difficulty, face flushed with shame. The fresh, unguarded look on her made my heart skip a beat for some reason, but I soon spoke to her with a light smile.
“You must have had a hard time, handling both hunter work and adjutant duties at once…”
“…Haa… Yes. Honestly it wasn’t easy. I didn’t particularly want to do it either.”
Are let out a slightly heavy sigh, cooling the emotion on her face a little. Then, returning to her usual calm expression, she looked at me and continued.
“But someone had to do it, so in the end I had no choice but to take it on. And just like this kid said, after I failed spectacularly once, I completely washed my hands of it.”
Unlike the military, Black Hunters had no clearly established system, so each group operated differently according to its own circumstances and character. There were cases like this place in the past, where the leader also served as adjutant and took command, and cases where they temporarily contracted someone from outside. Of course the ideal was still to bring in a proper adjutant even if it meant bearing some cost and conditions, just as they had done now.
“It’s certainly no easy thing to handle command while working in the field. There might be some advantages to it, but overall response capability has its limits, and above all the burden on the person themselves must be considerable.”
“Yes… I felt those limitations myself through direct experience, and eventually I strongly demanded that the company allow us to hire a proper adjutant. As a result we hired you, Mr. Jinhyun.”
“I see…”
I slowly nodded at Are’s words. Looking at me, she once again offered a light, slightly bashful smile.
“I’ll be looking forward to it… to your future performance, Mr. Jinhyun.”
“Yes. I’m still lacking, but I’ll do my utmost.”
I answered with sincerity. Then my gaze drifted down to the rather cute creature still making a racket beneath her.
“Ah! Gyaaaah! I said I was wrong, so let gooo!”
Even now Gwon-sun’s cheeks were still being stretched long by Are’s hands. From the way things looked, serving as temporary adjutant had clearly been a major black mark of shame for Are.
Yet that only made me feel a different kind of closeness toward her.
No wonder… the reason Are and the other hunters understood my hardships was because of this background.
Unlike the S-class hunters of the 28th Guild who had treated the work I did so lightly, the people here seemed to grasp the importance and difficulty of an adjutant quite well. And that was because they had experienced the job themselves and watched it from right beside it.
Recognizing that fact, I found myself automatically nodding at everything that had happened so far.
They say people only know the value of something after they’ve suffered its lack… From that perspective those bitches will probably never understand, unlike these people here, just how much I suffered back there.
Even though I had been discharged as adjutant, it was only because a new elite adjutant would be coming in, and that person would almost certainly be more capable than I was. They would suffer under those bitches’ harassment, of course, but at least they would be able to command the hunters a little more skillfully than I had and complete the missions.
One way or another, there was absolutely no chance that side would ever come to understand my hardships or miss me.
Feeling fresh malice toward those women well up from a completely unexpected direction, I shook the hellish memories of the 28th Guild out of my head as quickly as possible and turned my attention back to the women in front of me.
Unlike those bitches who had treated me as worthless for four years, these women had grasped and acknowledged my value after knowing me for barely forty minutes. Vowing to give everything I had for them from now on, I once again steeled my resolve.
Just then—
“Repas is ready. Everyone, please come.”
“Ooooh… finally.”
At Glass’s call from the kitchen, Gwon-sun dashed off like a delighted child. Are rose from her seat as well and looked at me.
“Shall we go, Adjutant?”
“Yes, of course.”
Feeling considerably more at ease than a moment ago, I entered the kitchen. And then—
“Whoa…”
I couldn’t hide my astonishment at the table laid out before my eyes. What was set there was not the level of an ordinary home meal; it was a feast of restaurant-quality dishes. Salad and soup, a main of roasted chicken and potatoes… even an opened bottle of wine. Looking at food that could only be called art, I asked in amazement,
“Um… is this really something that can be finished in forty minutes? The level is anything but ordinary…”
“Of course not. I began preparations two hours ago and spent the last forty minutes on the finishing touches and setting. A precious guest has come, so this much hospitality is only natural.”
“Ah…”
Surprised that far more time and care had gone into the cooking than I had thought, and moved once again that I was the one receiving such treatment, I felt my heart tighten. As if being comforted for all the hardships I had endured in the hunter guild, I took my seat and raised my glass together with my new comrades.
“Then, to our new adjutant, Lee Jinhyun!”
“To him!”
Draining the sweet wine with the toast, I became certain. Life here, too… would be a time as sweet for me as this wine.