The Director Comes Calling
What a splendid hunter!
Rabbit…??
Two questions demanded answers right then and there.
First: why was one of the most important men in the entire Republic of Korea standing inside a neighborhood corner store?
Granted, a general store required a certain amount of capital to open in the first place. Even so, that hardly explained an S-class Hunter dropping by. Anything he needed, he could have gotten inside the Hunter Administration itself. And even if he did need something, nothing on these shelves would have been of any use to someone at his level.
Which naturally led to the second question.
Why was Director Na Hwanil calling me a rabbit?
……
There was only one conclusion.
The Director had seen through my identity. He had come here for me.
If he had noticed I was concealing my mana, and if he had already investigated the fact that Kang Jiye was sheltering a teenager under her roof, then failing to put two and two together would have made him a complete idiot.
I had braced myself for this the moment I sold him the information on those glasses, anyway.
It's fine. A little sooner than expected, but still fine.
My own fault for drawing more attention than I'd planned. What could I do about it now?
Heh. Still, barging in like this in such a fluster… kind of adorable, honestly.
I put on an easy smile and pushed the door open.
"Director."
"Mm."
"I wasn't startled. Let's step outside and talk."
That was me. A woman who handled every situation with pure professionalism. A sage who faced the world with logic and never lost her composure.
You people could stand to learn a thing or two.
The Director gave me a strange look.
"That, my dear, is a glass window."
We relocated to a nearby café. The interior was crowded, so we took our drinks up to the second-floor terrace. It was the dead of winter, the wind knifing past in sharp gusts, and the place was deserted and quiet—no one else willing to come near.
For some reason, the Director offered an apology that almost sounded sheepish.
"I must have given you quite a fright, showing up out of nowhere. I'll be more careful next time."
My eyes went wide.
"Excuse me? Why are you apologizing all of a sudden? I'm perfectly fine."
"Even so. A secret agent working this hard for the good of the world can't afford to panic that easily."
"I told you, I'm fine. What on earth are you talking about?"
"That's why I said I'd pay for the cracked window. Honestly… all that flailing, and you only managed to break a bunch of merchandise."
Ah. So that was it.
I'd mixed up the entrance for half a second, and now he was painting me as some panic-prone wreck with the emotional fortitude of a jellyfish.
Clearly the Director was trying to rattle my composure and seize the upper hand in the conversation. Those old foxes really were terrifying that way. Arguing further would only put me at a disadvantage, so best not to take the bait.
"Director."
"Yes?"
"It seems you already know everything, so let's skip straight to the point."
There was no need for a preamble between the two of us. Professionals of our caliber could dispense with the cheap theatrics and get on with it.
"Ho ho."
The Director, who had been staring at me blankly, broke into a gentle smile.
He must have been embarrassed that I'd dismantled his strategy in a single stroke. Or perhaps the old master of schemes was simply delighted to have finally met a worthy opponent again after so long.
"Purple Bunny."
"Yes."
Whoosh—!
Without warning, the Director's enormous hand came down over the top of my head and proceeded to thoroughly ruffle my hair into a complete disaster.
I flailed both arms in panic.
"Wah—!"
"Well done. Thank you."
"Wh—what?"
"I'm genuinely moved. You could have lived your life without ever touching anything dangerous."
"……?"
"But to think your true identity was a young student. Just handing over the information on those magical beasts would have been more than enough to earn my gratitude—and then you went and actively cast support magic on the front lines like that… As someone responsible for the lives of hunters, I don't even know how to thank you properly."
"……."
What was this old man even saying?
I'd only given him the beast information because I didn't want the neighborhood getting noisy. Honestly, I didn't care all that much about the lives of hunters whose faces I didn't even know. Kang Jiye fretted over them, so I gave the matter the bare minimum of obligatory consideration. That was about it.
I had zero memory—across my past life or this one—of ever possessing the kind of noble self-sacrificing spirit he was describing.
"C-could you please stop that first…!"
I shoved at the Director's massive hand with both of mine, grunting with effort. I put real strength into it, too—but he was S-class. He didn't budge an inch.
"Still a bit weak, I see."
The Director laughed and withdrew his hand of his own accord.
I glared at him in return.
Strong…
Top-tier hunters were still out of my league, after all.
With magical beasts, I usually knew the clear strategies, so I could punch above my class. But I had precious little information on hunters. The number of times I'd actually faced one could be counted on one hand—and even then, it had only been a handful of A-class hunters who'd fallen to mental attacks and started swinging wildly, whom I'd then subdued.
If this man decided to kill me right now and came at me…?
Even if I summoned every magical beast in the amusement park, I wouldn't stand a chance. He'd ignore the Party Bears entirely, charge straight at me, and swing that holy sword. I'd simply be split clean in two.
It wasn't just raw power, either. The Director's situational judgment was on another plane entirely.
"……Judging by that look, you've figured it out."
The moment I narrowed my eyes and started analyzing him in earnest, the Director clasped his hands behind his back with a faintly awkward expression.
Once again, I had no idea what he was talking about. I tilted my head.
"Pardon?"
"You didn't know? I followed you myself for several days. I needed to determine whether you were a threat."
"What do you mean… you followed me personally, Director?"
"That's right."
"Aren't you… busy?"
Apparently my mana-concealment trait had forced him to handle the surveillance himself. If he'd sent subordinates, they would only have wasted time. And setting everything else aside—he simply couldn't entrust someone capable of instantly crushing an S-class magical beast's mental skill to anyone else.
Well. Fair enough.
Anyone would have been concerned about that, Director or not. Leaving it alone would have been the real dereliction of duty.
I nodded in understanding, and the Director suddenly let out a sigh.
"That said, it shouldn't have taken days. You stopped all activity with uncanny timing, Purple Bunny."
"Um… what? Were you waiting for me?"
I'd just been sprawled at home with zero thoughts in my head. Not uncanny—more like dense as a brick.
The Director's face looked like he was about to start grinding gravel between his teeth.
"You never left the house. It was genuinely difficult. I never thought of myself as an impatient man, but you went completely silent—quiet as a dead mouse—and I couldn't see any way forward. As you said, I had plenty of other work, which only made me more restless."
"Ahaha……"
"While we're on the subject—did you notice something nearby? Did you sense you were being watched?"
I shook my head at the Director's grumbling question.
"No?"
"Then what? Were you recovering mana or something?"
I let out a hollow laugh.
"Not that either. But is that really what you're curious about? You said you were busy."
Honestly, I'd expected the topic of how I hid my mana to come up first. That didn't seem like the kind of thing a man who claimed every minute of his day was spoken for would fixate on.
The Director shook his head and delivered a crystal-clear answer.
"I'm busy, which is precisely why it festers."
"Ah."
"I mean it. I stationed agents for twenty-four-hour surveillance, and all they reported was you bickering with that household's daughter and then sleeping, bickering and then sleeping. Eating and sleeping. Eating and sleeping."
"……."
"I'm not blaming you, of course. But in the meantime, our side was burning up inside."
A dry snort escaped the Director unbidden, as if he were recalling those days of surveillance.
This old man had almost certainly been waiting for me to set one foot outside the house so he could somehow prove that Pecia equaled Purple Bunny—gate schedule or no gate schedule. He had both the power and the cunning for it.
"I'm sorry that happened, even if it wasn't intentional. Honestly, if it was you, Director, I would have just told you outright if you'd asked. You only shortened your own lifespan for nothing."
"…."
The Director's face crumpled.
"W-well, anyway, I came out to buy Mana Cloth. Hehe."
The Director took a deep breath and nodded.
"I was looking forward to your shopping trip. To be honest, the rather generous allowance I arranged for you was partly for that reason. I figured a young woman might buy herself an Operite ring, at least."
Ah, Operite… it's been a while.
An original gemstone from Gate Apocalypse. Its color shifted from pale sky-blue to deep azure depending on mana exposure, and it could store and release magical spells. Men typically gifted them to female hunters as both a self-defense tool and a proposal token. It was also one of the gems women in this world prized most highly.
During my game-playing days, it had been a reliable side-income material.
But I answered with a reflexive look of pure distaste.
"I don't need that kind of thing."
The Director's eyebrows lifted slightly. He looked surprised.
"Why not? Most young women want one. They're useful for a hunter, too."
"They're expensive. If you're a hunter, just get a proper weapon—why chase after junk like that? Especially Mrs. M… ah, never mind."
Mrs. Mysis… to obtain a quest-critical item, you had to satisfy that woman. With a perfectly cut Operite. Crafted right in front of her, with the player's own hands! Only personally processed stones were accepted.
I had suffered so much back then that just hearing the word "Operite" still made me nauseous.
"Ahem!"
The Director suddenly cleared his throat and slipped something into his pocket.
He'd been holding something in his right fist this whole time. What had that been?
"This is embarrassing. Trying to win over a talent like you with something like that."
"Pardon?"
"I've been thinking about how to keep you here. Plenty of people leave the country after graduating from the Academy, after all."
"Ah……"
So he had been about to give me an Operite.
They were gifted not only between lovers but also as tokens of mutual trust.
Should I have just taken it?
If the Director had prepared it himself, it would have started at hundreds of millions of won at the very least.
"But I never imagined your first purchase would be something to help the neighbors. And then you call Operite 'junk like that.' My sense of things really has grown old. A straight-growing tree needs fertilizer, not gold leaf."
"No, wait—you can still give it to me, you know."
I never refuse free stuff, for the record. You can eat the fertilizer yourself.
But the Director only looked at me with a bitter smile.
"No. That was my mistake. More to the point—you demanded an information fee for the same reason, didn't you? To help your neighbors."
"I said you can still give it to me… and no, not even close. Neighbors, what neighbors."
"Ho ho. No need for modesty."
"No. I mean it."
Would this man just listen for once!
"My investigation turned up that you also helped a young student hunter. And I know about that fine answer you gave an Incheon Branch hunter—that 'great power is never given for free.'"
Huh?
Unless someone put a gun to my head, there was no universe in which I would ever say something like that.
Judging by the description, he was talking about that Hunter Cha who'd requested an interview. Whatever I'd actually said, the nuance had been warped into something from another dimension entirely.
How had it gotten twisted this badly?
"Student Pecia. Whoever you are, and wherever you came from—it doesn't matter to me."
Thud—
The Director gripped both of my shoulders.
I was left speechless, blinking up at him.
"Eh… eh?"
"From this moment on, I will do everything in my power to keep you here. I will see to every convenience you might need, as far as I am able. So give me—and this country—the chance to try."
His tone dropped lower.
"I won't press you about your abilities for now. Of course, I can't stop my own independent investigations."
The conversation was suddenly rushing forward like a torrent, and I scrambled to keep my wits about me.
First, I addressed the point that bothered me most.
"Um… hold on a second. I never said I was going anywhere?"
I lived in Incheon, period. I was not the type to go wandering around outside for no good reason. He really didn't need to worry about me running off.
But the Director only smiled faintly, a distant look in his eyes.
"Unfortunately, this society of ours is not kind to hunters of upright character like yourself. Difficult times will come for you—that much is certain."
He was completely missing the context.
"You'll grow disappointed in this society, disappointed in people. And then you may lose hope. People who are pure break easily. I know someone like that."
"……."
"So from now on, I'll be watching over you. To make sure you don't suffer, and that you don't go astray. We can't leave a student so young to carry everything alone."
"……."
Please don't watch over me!
"Is that everything you wanted to say?"
The realization that a leech ranking above even the Incheon Branch chief had latched onto me made my stomach turn, but I decided not to push back for now. Handling the Director clumsily could send the whole situation spiraling into the worst possible outcome.
I wasn't joking. One slip of the tongue here, and he might uncover my real identity.
Meanwhile, the Director seemed to take my silence as acceptance. He nodded with a look full of quiet melancholy.
Then, in the next instant, his expression shifted completely—and murderous mana began to coil around his entire body.
Ting! Crack!
A chunk of concrete nearby evaporated into white smoke without a trace.
"……!"
I blinked in shock.
What was this all of a sudden?
"I have a question."
"What is it…?"
The Director tapped his glasses lightly with his left hand.
"These glasses. Once I put them on, it was quite a different world."
"Ah… right?"
"Well, you seem to know that already, so no deep explanation is needed."
"Yes, yes."
Of course I knew.
Those things had made quests so much easier. Whenever the Director stepped in, the amount of micromanaging I had to do dropped dramatically.
I nodded in gratitude—and the Director turned his body slightly, looking down at me through narrowed eyes.
"But you see. I've started noticing strange things."
"Strange things?"
"Quite a number of staff members with external mana layered over them."