Blessing
“What the hell is that…….”
Han Hye-yeon stood there, completely blank, staring at the teddy bears.
In the Party Bears’ hands were baseball bats soaked in blood. Judging by how little she was reacting, she’d either already run into them once or figured out the situation fast enough on her own.
Doesn’t matter either way.
I opened a gate and held out my hand. From inside, a Party Bear’s paw appeared and dropped a pair of sunglasses into my palm. I slipped them on with a flourish and stepped up in front of Han Hye-yeon.
“Miss Hye-yeon?”
She turned toward me.
“Yes?”
“Would you look this way for a moment?”
No flash needed. My hand was the flash. I snapped my middle finger against my thumb—crack!—and a burst of light exploded outward like a camera strobe.
“Ah!”
Hye-yeon threw up an arm and turned her head. In that split second the Party Bears dove headlong into the gate, and I hit her with a hypnosis skill on the spot.
“You didn’t see any Party Bears or any gate here. The boss shorted out from overusing its mana, and you and I just happened to witness it and finished the job.”
“Yeees…….”
“Now, fire one last mana round. Aim right between the eyes.”
Bang!
Hye-yeon pulled the trigger without a second’s hesitation. The rifle round punched clean through the mangled head of the mad mage and blew a massive hole out the back of his skull.
D-class gate: cleared.
“I honestly don’t know how to thank you enough.”
Once we were out of the gate, party leader Park Da-hoon bowed his head to me. With that, he had become the leader of a ragtag party that had cleared a D-class undead dungeon. It wasn’t the kind of achievement that would bump anyone’s hunter rank, but among low-tier hunters it counted as a top-tier résumé entry. Not only had I saved them from a situation that could easily have turned into casualties—I’d also padded their careers. The gratitude was only natural.
“Still, though, you should’ve called us so we could finish it together…….”
“Be quiet. Without Safety Keeper, we never would’ve cleared it in the first place.”
“That’s one thing, and this is another.”
Of course, there was still one party member who had to pick at our solo action. It wasn’t concern for Hye-yeon’s or my safety. Most of the loot was concentrated in the dungeon boss room, and she knew it.
Most of the others weren’t interested in hearing her out. The side income from a D-class dungeon was nothing more than low-grade scrolls and mana stones—nowhere near the clear bonus the government paid out. Picking a fight with Safety Keeper over that simply wasn’t worth it.
Eventually the frustrated woman turned her pressure on Hye-yeon instead.
“Hey, Hye-yeon. You say it yourself. Is it right for the two of you to monopolize the boss mana stone? Safety Keeper’s one thing, but you?”
She’s been needling Hye-yeon this whole time.
Did she even have a conscience? She was the same woman who’d been whining about turning back earlier. The type who had a complaint about everything, apparently.
I started to sigh.
“Excuse me, you—”
“Hm?”
But Hye-yeon put a hand on my shoulder and stepped forward.
“Who said anyone was monopolizing anything? We were always planning to split it from the start.”
“……!”
Hey. Wait. I went out of my way to funnel the rewards to you, and this is what you do?
“Even if we handled the boss alone, we entered as a party. Unnie Yuna’s point is fair.”
The chronic complainer crossed her arms.
“You all heard that?”
“Of course we’ll still weight it by contribution. We’ll leave that part to the party leader.”
“Whatever. Do what you want.”
Only then did the woman toss her glossy hair back over her shoulder and walk off, her whole face screaming I won. From the beginning, a few extra coins hadn’t been the point. Getting her way had been.
That fucking bitch.
I was mouthing curses under my breath when Park Da-hoon smoothed things over with an awkward smile.
“Alright, then…… I’ll handle the distribution. I’ll deposit everyone’s share according to contribution.”
“Yes.”
“Understood.”
“Good work, everyone.”
The party members shrugged and drifted off. The woman’s behavior had been ugly, but a few hundred thousand won extra landing in their accounts was enough to kill any urge to complain.
I turned on Hye-yeon.
“Why would you just fold like that?”
She apologized in a flustered tone.
“Ah—you’re right. I’m sorry. Because of me, even you—”
“That’s not the problem. That woman just walked off looking triumphant. It doesn’t make any logical sense. You’re the one who insisted on clearing it to the end! Why would you do that?”
You said you had so many younger siblings to take care of. Don’t be an idiot.
Hye-yeon gave a bitter little smile.
“Well, you wouldn’t know this, unnie. I have to be careful.”
“What?”
“High-rank hunters never fight over pocket change like this. They’ve got room to breathe. Spending time nitpicking small change is less profitable than just running another raid, right?”
“…….”
How would I know? I’ve never been one.
“But people like us are different. We’re the ones worrying about tomorrow’s food money, next month’s rent, and gear that’s falling apart. We can’t help watching the person next to us, can’t help being jealous of their achievements.”
“So?”
“It means I can’t stand out. Especially not a rookie hunter with no track record like me. If a rumor starts that I’m greedy about rewards, life gets exhausting real fast.”
Hye-yeon let out a long breath.
“If that unnie had been wrong, maybe. But honestly, she wasn’t. Safety Keeper unnie basically solo-cleared the dungeon. I’m not in a position to stick my spoon in.”
“…….”
So what she was saying, in short, was that even among hunters, social exile was a real thing. Unless you planned to spend your whole life bouncing between slapdash pickup parties, you had to care about your reputation. Even if your contribution was a little higher, you were supposed to split the rewards as evenly as possible.
It was a side of hunter society I hadn’t particularly wanted to learn about.
“Anyway, thank you so much for today. Without you, we wouldn’t even have gotten the clear bonus. Thanks to you, I can buy my siblings something nice to eat.”
Hye-yeon bowed from the waist. I couldn’t bring myself to push the reward issue any further. When the person who should have been the angriest was holding her emotions that tightly, what good would it do for me to blow up? That wouldn’t be helping—it would be getting in the way.
I simply folded my hands in front of me and answered with a smile.
“……Make sure you brag to your siblings. Tell them how cool their big sister was in that dungeon.”
Hye-yeon blinked.
“Uh…… yes. Of course.”
I added one more thing, deliberately.
“Sometimes your siblings might feel like a burden. Just keeping them fed and clothed is already overwhelming, I’m sure. But sharing stories like this and playing with them—that alone is a huge gift to them. Even if hard times come later, those kids will be able to endure by looking at their big sister’s solid back.”
Hye-yeon’s eyes wavered slightly.
“Ah…… yes. But unnie, something’s been bothering me since earlier—”
“Remember this. They are a blessing that came to you.”
I stretched out a hand and pointed toward the gate management office. Baby birds were waiting at home; I couldn’t stand here delivering long-winded lectures like some old fogey.
She was already an excellent head of household. What she needed was money and time. Advice from a failure who couldn’t even take care of her own family was worthless.
I just wanted to say it.
That I was jealous of her.
“Unnie. I just don’t wanna take a bath…….”
“Huh? Oh, for real! Han Seo-ah pooped in the bathtub again!”
“Action—punch!”
Crash—rattle—rattle—
“Aaaah—! My dominos!!! Han Guk-jin, you little shit!”
“Ugh, shut up already! I’m trying to study!”
But when Han Hye-yeon got home, there was no time to spin any heroic tales.
Of her five younger siblings, the oldest was a fourteen-year-old sister—Han Ji-ah. The rest were elementary schoolers or kindergartners. Looking after all of them, even two bodies wouldn’t have been enough.
It would have helped if the second child, Ji-ah, pitched in with the childcare…….
“This is so annoying. I’m going to the library.”
Slam!
She was already deep in the storm-and-stress years. Rather than understanding her eldest sister’s burdens, she was at the age of seriously wondering why she’d been born into this shabby household at all—resenting the parents who’d brought her into the world on a whim and then died early.
Hye-yeon stared at the roughly shut front door and thought, This is bad. If she’s prepping for high school entrance, I need to at least get her a study room membership.
Having already suffered through the hunter qualification exam herself, she knew exactly how much a proper study environment mattered. Even one or two hours of complete focus on a textbook made a huge difference in efficiency.
She understood her rude, immature little sister. Hye-yeon herself had received the most support before their parents died, and she’d had at least some time to grow into the responsibility of being the eldest. Ji-ah hadn’t. Middle children were always stuck in that awkward in-between.
“Oh, right. Big unnie.”
“Yeah?”
“The landlady came by earlier.”
“The landlady? Why?”
“Dunno. She was super annoyed. Said we’re too loud and we should get out.”
“Ah…… okay. Unnie will call her, so don’t worry about it.”
And go where, exactly.
Hye-yeon sighed inwardly. The villa’s landlady had been demanding they move out for months already. The reason: the kids were too noisy. But no matter how desperately she tried to manage them, she was still a high school student. There was no way she could stick to her little siblings twenty-four hours a day.
She understood getting angry when the little ones caused trouble…… but couldn’t the other side consider her situation at least a little?
Hye-yeon rarely showed her frustration, but this time the landlady—and the world itself—felt bitterly unfair.
Funny. Like I’ve ever lived considering other people’s circumstances.
She let out a hollow laugh and started looking up real estate listings. What else could she do? With no other options, the only path was finding a new nest.
It was not an easy process. Building owners willing to take in a family made up entirely of young children were rare. One after another either refused outright or demanded extra money under the table.
A few days later, after wearing out her shoes hunting for places, Hye-yeon finally felt her resolve crack. No matter how hard she searched, there simply wasn’t a suitable rental anywhere nearby. Places big enough for six people were far too expensive; places that fit the budget were impossibly cramped.
Even the government subsidy isn’t enough.
She sat at the kitchen table, staring at her phone for a full hour. Should she plead with the landlady again, or start looking in a completely different neighborhood? Neither choice was easy.
Ding-dong—
Then, out of nowhere, the doorbell rang.
……?
Her third sibling flung the door open without asking and shouted,
“Big unnie! There’s a guest!”
At this hour, the only guest who would show up was the landlady. Hye-yeon braced herself for the inevitable and exhaled a deep, heavy sigh. She sat there blankly for a few seconds before reluctantly pushing herself to her feet.
“Huh?”
But the visitor was nothing like what she’d expected.
A familiar face—a woman in her twenties—held out an envelope.
“Here!”
Hye-yeon blinked.
“Im Yu-na?”
“Just take it!”
Hye-yeon stared at the letter for a moment, then accepted it. Im Yu-na spoke as if she needed confirmation.
“I delivered it, okay? I didn’t say anything? I didn’t talk down to you?”
“What are you talking about. What?”
Im Yu-na snapped back, irritated.
“That crazy woman keeps showing up wherever I go!”
“Crazy woman?”
“That insane rabbit mask! Every single place I go—‘Oh my, what a coincidence!’—and then she kicks me in the shin, dumps salt on me, spills coffee on me—I’m actually going insane!”
There was only one rabbit mask Hye-yeon knew. Looking at Im Yu-na’s purple-bruised shin, she asked in a thoroughly bewildered voice,
“What are you saying. So Safety Keeper unnie did all that?”
“That’s what I’m telling you!”
“Why would she?”
“How should I know! Something about how I’m not the only petty person in the world. Anyway, I apologized, so I’m leaving. Nice connections you’ve got, seriously.”
Im Yu-na jabbed the elevator button in irritation. But it had been broken for ages. In the end she had to go back down the same stairs she’d come up.
Hye-yeon stood in place, tilting her head. What on earth had happened between her and Purple Bunny to make Im Yu-na deliver a letter like this?
An apology letter?
Rip—
She tore the envelope open and spread the contents out at once. But it was nothing like a letter from Im Yu-na.
The further she read, the wider her eyes grew. A moment later she frantically opened her banking app on her phone.
……!
Exactly twenty million won had been added to the balance. Checking the transaction history right away, she found this written there:
[Thanks for coming all the way to the boss room to save me]
“…….”
With trembling hands, Hye-yeon covered her mouth.
The letter itself was brief. An apology for investigating her behind her back, and a wish that she would find a good home and be happy with her siblings.
Tears poured from her eyes in a sudden flood.