Park Hana of the Combat Department (1)
Thanks to Park Hana arriving at the most precarious possible moment, the tide of battle had narrowly tipped in our favor.
Up until now, no one had been able to land a meaningful blow on Kang Kal-jin. That was no longer the case.
Park Hana's Internal Destruction Fist could destroy an opponent's body from the inside out. There was a somewhat amusing bit of lore attached to it—the ability had awakened precisely so she could deal real damage to Park Cheon-ho's body, which was wrapped head to toe in Body Protective Aura—but whatever the origin, it meant the steel-skinned bastard could finally take a hit that actually counted.
The fact that I, someone teetering on the edge of death mere minutes ago, could now think this calmly was also thanks to Park Hana occupying him—freeing Kim Isabel up to treat me at last.
—KAANG! KANG! KAAAANG!!
"Ngh—y-you two-year…!! Just how much mindless strength does it take to break a body of steel like mine?!!"
"Who are you calling a muscle-brained freak like some—?!!"
—KAAAAAANG!!!
So her canon traits of flying into a rage at the slightest remark and having a deceptively hard head carried over here too, apparently.
Honestly, the greatest mystery was how she'd managed to score among the top performers on the written exam. Then again, plenty of the questions covered practical combat experience, so maybe her sharp battle instincts had carried her through.
I did wish she were wearing a training uniform instead of jeans, though. After finally getting to meet Park Hana in person, not being able to appreciate her signature black innerwear was a little disappointing.
'It's pretty funny that this is what I think about right after barely surviving death.'
It wasn't wrong to say that a man will start thinking about women the moment he has the strength to lift a spoon. It was the very reason I'd begun actively interfering with the original story in the first place.
If my goal had simply been to live an ordinary life and survive in this world, I never would have thrown myself into things so desperately. I'd have grabbed Cha Eunju and quietly bowed out, leaving the protagonist's party entirely alone.
"Whew… whew…."
"…O sacred light, embrace this poor lamb's wounds with Your love."
Along with the sensation of Kim Isabel's holy power flowing into my body, the gash Kang Kal-jin had left on me was almost fully healed.
During the practical exam, the muscles across my entire body had been torn nearly to shreds, so the treatment had taken ages—but this time it was only a matter of closing a wound on my back. I wouldn't be spending three days flat on my back in the church infirmary like last time.
Besides, if a healer couldn't patch up an injury of this level on the spot, there'd be no reason to bring a Recovery Department hunter into a dungeon at all. No one insane enough to drag dead weight into a dungeon just to treat a sprained ankle or a case of food poisoning.
"You're all healed, Mr. Lee Seonho."
"Thanks, Isabel. I honestly thought I was going to die from the pain. Feeling a lot better now."
"…If you're grateful, then please stop getting hurt. Do you have any idea how worried sick I was over you just now?"
"I'm sorry. But I didn't have a choice."
Because if it hadn't been me, Cha Eunju would have ended up with three fresh claw marks across her face.
And no matter how quickly Kim Isabel's holy power could patch a wound, the pain and shock of taking the hit couldn't be erased. Thinking about the possibility of PTSD taking root later on, it was better that I was the one who got hurt.
"Hah—Shadow Chains…!"
"Th-these things have been annoying me since earli—KEGHK!!"
"I won't forgive you…. Absolutely, absolutely going to kill you…."
Cha Eunju was faithfully converting her fury over nearly watching me die into raw combat power, restricting Kang Kal-jin's movements.
Despite having nearly exhausted her mana, she was assisting Park Hana's assault with bloodshot eyes—and Park Hana, riding the rhythm of that support, kept landing hit after meaningful hit on the man's steel body.
Her kick caught the villain executive square in the jaw and sent him rocketing skyward. Kang Kal-jin's body sailed briefly through the air before crashing flat onto the ground.
"Ugh…. Wh-what the hell is wrong with this crazy woman…? H-how do you keep wounding a body as hard as steel…?"
"Internal Destruction Fist strikes from the inside, not the outside. And as it happens, a guy like you—all hide but no real punch—was wandering around right here."
"You… damned…."
With those final words, Kang Kal-jin collapsed where he lay and breathed his last.
He looked perfectly intact from the outside, but inside, Park Hana's fists and kicks had probably left him a wreck. The type of fool who trusted so completely in his steel-transformation ability that he genuinely believed himself invincible.
—FWOOSH!
"Guhk—ghk…!!"
—Thud.
"…We're finished over here too."
Han Sora's sniping had wrapped up the remaining organization members who'd been facing us, so now, in the truest sense, it was finally over.
Kang Kal-jin and Bang Hwa-cheol were both wanted, dangerous villains, so even when the Hunter Association's investigation came in later, there'd be no room for any ugly misunderstandings. If anything, the government might owe us a reward bounty.
More important than any of that, though, was making a proper connection with Park Hana—and this was our first formal meeting. Using gratitude as my pretext, I gave her a quiet, respectful bow.
"Thank you for your help, Hunter."
"………."
"Um… Hunter…?"
"…Huh? Oh—m-me? No, don't worry about it. I just happened to be passing by and saw what was going on, so I lent a hand. That's all."
"You're an active-duty hunter, aren't you? I'd like to properly repay you later—may I ask your name?"
"Huh? Oh, my name's Park Hana, but… I wouldn't exactly call myself an active-duty hunter…."
"Then might you be an academy student?"
"Not a current student—a freshman. Um, at Cheonmu Hunter Academy…."
The moment I complimented her by saying she fought like a professional hunter, Park Hana couldn't hide her delight and began rattling off her personal information without pause.
And the instant we heard she was a freshman at Cheonmu Hunter Academy, the other three of us couldn't help but react—our eyes going wide with surprise.
"Wha—really? I'm a freshman this year too!"
"Huh?"
"…Same here. And so are Cha Eunju and Lee Seonho, who are with us."
"…Eh? Seriously?"
The moment Han Sora and Kim Isabel revealed they were freshmen, Park Hana made no effort to mask her own astonishment.
Since I was effectively acting as the leader of this party, I introduced her to each of my companions one by one.
"The purple-haired girl here is Cha Eunju—a freshman in the Magic Department. The brown-haired one is Han Sora, from the Archery Department. And Kim Isabel—well, one look tells you which department she's in, right?"
"One glance at her outfit and yeah, Recovery Department, obviously. And what about you?"
"I'm Lee Seonho. My department's Combat Support."
"Combat Support? They had a department like that at Cheonmu Academy?"
"It's the role of assisting party members with the things they can't afford to focus on. In exchange, our direct combat ability runs a bit weaker."
"Now that you mention it, you did seem kind of weak. But do parties actually need something like that?"
—Flinch.
At Park Hana's ambiguous remark, Cha Eunju jolted and started to spring up before I could react—I pressed her shoulder firmly back down.
It wasn't as if she was deliberately running me down, and at this point, a reaction like that hardly warranted getting worked up over again.
"Well, it's not an essential position like a tank or a damage dealer, so you might not be used to seeing one. Unless it's a large-scale party, people often don't bother adding one at all."
"Oh, I see. Anyway, nice to meet you. Like I said, I'm Park Hana, freshman in the Combat Department this year."
With that, she extended her hand to me, and I gave a quiet nod and clasped it.
At her odd treatment of me, Cha Eunju stirred with a flicker of displeasure—but Park Hana hadn't committed any outright rudeness, so I let it slide.
Besides, there was no real malice behind it. That was simply who Park Hana was—a girl who blurted out whatever happened to be sitting in her head. Entirely unlike Seo Woojin, who'd skulked around making sly digs at me in front of Han Sora.
"Now that I think about it, you fought really well earlier. You kept dodging all those shadow things flying everywhere and just kept charging at that weird finger guy—your support work was solid."
"……Yes."
"You can do stuff like that with magic? The magic I saw on TV back in the day was all giant fireballs blowing up massive monsters and such. Can you do that kind of thing too?"
"……No."
"…Um, is she usually this quiet?"
"Sorry, sorry. Eunju's always been pretty shy around strangers. Cut her some slack."
In truth, she was just sulking because she didn't like Park Hana treating me as the weakest link.
The sentiment itself was sweet, but judging from this reaction, it looked like it would take Cha Eunju a while to warm up to Park Hana.
"Anyway, thank you again. If we run into each other at the academy, I'll make sure to repay this debt."
"Huh? Aw, come on, don't make a big deal of it. We're all freshmen helping each other out, so who cares. Just do me a favor and pretend we never met if we cross paths at the academy."
"Surely you wouldn't really do that."
The wildcard situation Kang Kal-jin's whims had thrown at us had turned genuinely dangerous, but in the end, I'd managed to make proper contact with Park Hana, and that was what counted.
With a melee damage dealer secured, I could now say I'd collected at least one specialist per position. And if Park Hana was around, she could drag Park Cheon-ho along as a bonus and have him soak hits—meaning I'd effectively locked in a backup tank for whenever Choi Marie wasn't available.
"So if this guy was Kang Kal-jin… that just leaves the big boss, what's-his-name, Cho Jin-hyun, right? And that Bang Hwa-cheol guy."
"…Yes, that's right."
"What are you planning to do, Mr. Lee Seonho?"
"Obviously, we go after them. We've already recovered from our injuries—there's no reason to sit around hesitating here."
"B-but… wh-what if you get hurt again, Seonho…?"
"The wound from earlier is already healed thanks to Isabel, so it's fine. And like I said before, we're the only ones who can resolve this situation."
"…Wait, hold on. You're telling me you guys were actually out hunting these people? You weren't just ambushed out of nowhere?"
"We were ambushed out of nowhere. While we were in the middle of hunting down the other terrorist organization members, that is."
At my words, Park Hana turned toward us with quiet, visible interest in her eyes.
Slaying wicked villains to protect the innocent. Bringing down a colossal monster that burst out of a Monster Wave and rescuing the people around it. For a girl with that particular brand of aspiration, it was exactly the kind of conversation she couldn't help but be drawn to.
Still, she apparently couldn't bring herself to barge into such a serious mood, so she just kept glancing around cautiously at the edges of it.
"Even so, I think it's dangerous. And at this point, I'd say we students have already done more than enough of our part."
"Isabel's right. And that subordinate of theirs, Kang Kal-jin, was more dangerous than we expected—which means the leader, this Cho Jin-hyun, might be even worse."
"…Cha Eunju, what do you think?"
"I-I want Seonho to not get hurt, but…."
"………."
"B-but if Seonho says he has to go, then… I-I'll go with him…."
Cha Eunju would follow whatever I said without question, so in practice, the vote was split two to two.
Of course, if I dug in my heels and insisted we had to hunt down the remaining members, Han Sora and Kim Isabel would inevitably come along anyway—but I had no desire to project the image of a dictatorial leader so early on.
To bring these girls into my harem, running a stable hunter party was non-negotiable. No matter how much of a mere 'Combat Support' I was, I needed to show them all a leader who respected everyone's opinions—someone they could trust and follow.
And to jolt these hesitant ladies back into motion, now was the time to put Park Hana to use.
"Then let's write off the leader for now and at least track down this Bang Hwa-cheol. He's a bomber—if we're even a little late, there could be more victims."
"…A bomber?"
"Why? Do you know something?"
"I know where that bastard is! Oh, right! This is no time to be standing around here!"
Park Hana reacted instantly to the information about the bomber I'd deliberately let drop.
Genuinely having forgotten, she ruffled her own hair in a flurry, her whole body broadcasting her panic.