Mistakes and Forgiveness (?)
"Ugh — what kind of garbage human being does that?!"
Pecia was seething over a sexual harassment incident that had happened at work.
If you asked whether she had no idea what she herself had done — well, that wasn't quite it.
Call it a simple lack of experience.
As someone who had always shut herself away at home, she understood sexual harassment as something fairly direct. Things like spewing dirty talk right in front of the person involved, or actually putting hands on someone's body.
It had never once crossed her mind that something as minor as a "chest this, chest that" comment could qualify as workplace sexual harassment. Especially when the person in question hadn't even been in the room.
"They should just kill him! Trash like that! How do you not even control your own instincts and go around hurting people…!"
Seriously, how could anyone do that?
Sure, Auntie's figure is great, and she's got that sensual vibe that fits her position, but still…!
That kind of thing was supposed to stay inside your head.
Dumping your instincts all over a single mom raising a kid alone? Absolutely not.
No matter how you looked at it, that wasn't something a human being should do.
"Heh. Fair enough."
Meanwhile, Kang Jiye watched Pecia flail her hands and raise her voice, looking thoroughly proud.
For all the talk of individualism and whatever else, that sense of justice was the real deal. Or rather — maybe it was precisely because the world wasn't just that she'd closed her heart in the first place.
Bad people were supposed to be punished and good people rewarded, but human society never actually worked that way. If anything, the cruel and the cold-hearted got more opportunities and lived more comfortably.
With a stubborn personality like hers, there was no way she could accept that contradiction.
At a glance it looked like the kind of black-and-white thinking a kindergartener might have — but dig into the essence of it, and it was hard to say she was entirely wrong.
"Who even did that?!"
"Hmm… hang on. Looking at the personal details… doesn't seem like anyone I know."
"Ugh, that piece of trash. That idiot. That absolute scumbag. That psycho bastard. That son of a—"
"Tsk. Don't drag his parents into it."
"Right, yeah. He's the one who messed up. Collective punishment's not okay. That dog. That animal. That filthy piece of garbage. That worthless little—"
Okay, even so — wasn't this reaction a little extreme?
Most people would just click their tongue and move on, or not care much if it wasn't their own business.
Unfortunately, though… pure righteous indignation wasn't the only thing fueling Pecia's response.
A creature that abandoned principle and dumped its instincts into words and actions — that was a beast, not a person, and therefore deserved no respect.
You could curse it for no reason, use violence against it, even stab it to death in passing and walk free. In other words, a clear target for venting, a being of a lower class.
Something along the lines of See? I really am a superior being!
"Let's see… hm?"
Kang Jiye's eyes suddenly went wide.
"You piece of— you absolute— what is it?"
"The incident location is our house? Must've been the people who came by yesterday."
"…?"
"While the victim wasn't around, he made a groping gesture at her chest, snickered, and said 'tits.' After that he also made a comment about 'Deputy Director Kang's chest'… yeah, this is completely airtight."
"…"
Pecia's mouth went abruptly quiet.
"I should meet him and hear what he has to say. Why he did it. Honestly, the things you run into these days…"
At the mention of a meeting, Pecia hastily opened her mouth.
"Uh! That—"
"Hm?"
"Do you really need to meet him? It'll just put you in a bad mood for nothing."
"No. My job is investigating people and bringing them in — of course I have to meet him. If I start handling my own cases emotionally, who's going to trust the Hunter Administration?"
"That's… yeah, you're right."
Pecia nodded. It wasn't a wrong argument. Still carefully reading Kang Jiye's mood, she then offered a loaded question.
"…Hey."
"Yeah."
"What do you think about mistakes?"
Kang Jiye snorted at the sudden question.
"What, are you trying to say it was just a mistake after all this?"
"No, that's not it. Just answer me. What do you think about mistakes?"
"Well… I mean, anyone's going to make mistakes if they're human, right? Even if someone messes up with me, as long as nobody died, I usually let it slide."
Pecia's eyes lit up.
"Really?"
"Yeah. This whole thing too — if it's nothing major, I'm not planning to make a big deal of it. Honestly, people are so hypersensitive about everything these days."
"This is the room. Please go ahead and talk."
Kang Jiye entered the Hunter Administration interrogation room and looked at the man sitting across from her.
They were meeting under HR supervision to prevent any secondary incidents.
The man, who had been sitting with a heavy expression, shot to his feet the moment HR stepped out and bowed at a perfect right angle.
"I'm sorry, Deputy Director Kang. There's no excuse for what I did. This was entirely my fault."
"…"
Arms crossed, Kang Jiye said nothing and simply looked at him.
An A-class Hunter — and the Deputy Director of the Incheon Branch of the Hunter Administration, which was effectively the nation's core military force. That was the weight behind her gaze.
The man was also a Hunter Administration employee, but the gap in rank and personal combat power was so large that tension naturally seized his whole body.
"Why did you do it?"
"S-sorry?"
"The chest comments. Why. My daughter was nearby at the time, too."
"…!"
She probably hadn't overheard. But humiliating a mother in front of her child was still something thoroughly worth condemning.
The man's face — Ahn Chang-soo's face — went dark in an instant.
"…I-I'm sorry."
"I'm asking for a reason."
Ahn Chang-soo bit his lip.
"I have nothing I can say. Nothing except that in the moment, I just… wanted to."
"While cleaning up a corpse?"
"…Yes."
Kang Jiye frowned and tilted her head.
"Why on earth?"
"…"
Yeah. Why.
Honestly, he found it strange himself.
Why had those words come out of his mouth at that exact timing?
Sure, he was a man in his late twenties, so of course that kind of thing was on his mind, and it was also true that the moment he first saw Kang Jiye he hadn't known where to put his eyes.
But he was a reasonably seasoned agent. If he made this kind of slip every time a beautiful woman walked by, he wouldn't have ended up in the Hunter Administration — he'd have ended up in prison.
No matter how he turned it over, it wasn't behavior that made sense.
"…That friend just kept talking to me."
Probably his concentration had slipped while he was exhausted.
Kang Jiye, who hadn't missed the mutter, narrowed her eyes.
"Who?"
"Ah — no, I'm not trying to make excuses—"
"No. Keep talking. Who was next to you?"
Kang Jiye pressed Ahn Chang-soo until she had the full details of that day. From his perspective it was a meaningless story. From hers, it was a sequence of events that made her knuckles itch for a good hard knuckle sandwich.
What do you think about mistakes?
…
That little brat. Seriously.
"Time's up. How would you like to proceed, Deputy Director Kang?"
A short while later, HR returned to the interrogation room and asked Kang Jiye what punishment she wanted.
She looked at Ahn Chang-soo for a long moment, then let out a sigh.
"I'll let it go. Be more careful from now on."
Ahn Chang-soo's eyes went huge.
"…Excuse me?"
"People make mistakes when they're tired. You didn't actually touch me, and nobody got hurt, so we'll leave it here. Let's just laugh this kind of thing off and move on."
"…!"
She added that, based on the attitude he'd just shown, he didn't seem like the type who would do something like that. His focus had just slipped for a moment — he just needed to do better going forward.
Ahn Chang-soo's vision blurred with emotion.
Beep. Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep. Beep—
The sound of the front door password being entered.
Pecia's back went ramrod straight.
That sound…!
It had already been nearly two months since she'd come to live at Kang Jiye's house. By now she could tell who was coming home — and what kind of mood they were in — just from the way they pressed the door lock.
Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep, beep.
Yena's presses were very even, and slow. Irregular like this meant Kang Jiye. And that pause at the end meant she was taking a deep breath.
In other words: either tense, or angry.
Bang!
The moment the door opened and Kang Jiye stepped through, Pecia shot her right hand straight up toward the ceiling.
"It was a mistake! I'm sorry!"
Mondays always meant overtime. The only reason Kang Jiye would come home like this was because she'd figured out the real culprit behind the sexual harassment case and was here to deliver justice.
Pecia's prediction was correct.
Kang Jiye strode into the house and drove a nuclear fist straight into Pecia's purple bowl-cut.
Wham!
"Gah…! Aaaaaah!!"
"You know why."
"Y-you said you'd forgive mistakes! You liar!"
Even while clutching her head and thrashing on the floor, she still managed to call out Kang Jiye's "contradiction."
Kang Jiye answered with a cold little smile.
"Sorry. Hitting you was a mistake too. You'll forgive me, right?"
"…"
"Anyway, have fun. I'm heading back for overtime. Ohhh — come here, baby."
Kang Jiye planted a kiss on her daughter's cheek. Yena, who had been watching from the side with a startled expression, gave an awkward smile and nodded.
…Thud!
After Kang Jiye closed the door and left, Yena looked down at Pecia.
…
It was a strange feeling.
She used to be the one who got scolded all the time — but lately it somehow felt like big sister Pecia was the one getting more of the heat.
She poked Pecia in the side with her toy magic wand.
"Unnie, you okay?"
"…Yeah."
Sprawled out like a seal, Pecia nodded.
"Yena."
"Hm?"
"The world is rotten."
"Yeah."
"You're late, Deputy Director."
"I'm sorry. Something came up at home."
By the time she returned to the Incheon Branch, the meeting was already well underway.
Having thoroughly worked out the simmering frustration in her chest, Kang Jiye took her seat looking thoroughly refreshed.
The meeting was about the "Plant Queen" matter Kang Jiye had reported a few days earlier.
News that the nation's core hunters and their families were being targeted had already sent South Korea's upper ranks into a stir.
It was hardly the kind of agenda you could be late for over something as trivial as home discipline — but Kang Jiye wasn't nervous.
Pecia…
It had already been tentatively decided that they would bring in "Purple Bunny."
Director Kim Hansoo's position was that if they had a collaborator who could counter mental attacks, of course they should use her — and the other branches had agreed.
I wonder how she's going to kill them this time. Turn them into something like Kim Siwoo, maybe.
Since they were people who'd gone after her daughter, she didn't feel particularly moved. Looking back, though, it did strike her as rather cruel.
She did the right things — but it felt like she had no "line" she wouldn't cross.
And though she hadn't said it out loud until now, the combat power of Pecia and the amusement park was already approaching the upper end of a B-class gate.
Even Kang Jiye, her guardian, found it hard to guess what kind of performance she might put on.
Just then, Kim Hansoo looked over at her.
"Ah, Deputy Director. About your safety guardian."
"Purple Bunny. Go ahead."
"I think we ought to run a bit of a test."
"A test?"
"Nothing major. The operation's just so large-scale. I'd feel better if I saw her abilities myself."
Kang Jiye tilted her head.
Test her? Test Pecia?
She understood Kim Hansoo's reasoning. This was an operation that would move the Hunter Administration across both Incheon and all of Seoul at once.
Still, the idea of testing an S-class magical beast left her with an uneasy feeling.
But before she could raise any objection, Director Kim Hansoo gestured toward the door.
"Come in."
The person who opened the conference room door was a blond man in his mid-twenties.
His eyes were unusually long and narrow, and he dipped his head with a sly little curl of his lips.
It was a greeting that managed to look both polite and faintly theatrical.
"Yoo Hanbaek. Please call me Joker."
Kang Jiye narrowed her eyes.
Joker. The one who teases?
Kim Hansoo introduced him.
"B-class mental-type ability user. More of a rear-line disruption asset than a frontline fighter. Looks slippery, but his work is clean."
"Haha — 'clean,' you say?"
"Hm? Is it not?"
"Well, if I do my work too thoroughly, will the test subject still be in one piece?"
"What."
Kim Hansoo burst out laughing at the bold remark.
"Hahahahaha! Right, fair enough. My mistake."
"Heh. Not at all. More importantly — Hunter Kang."
The man looked at Kang Jiye.
"…?"
"My apologies in advance."
"For what?"
"Your safety guardian might make a rather large mistake. This is a test of a Hunter Administration collaborator, after all — I can hardly go easy, can I?"