The Faulty Poster
The street fell quiet, as if the matter had finally been settled. Just then, Min-jeong approached the dachshund, now returned to its original form.
"What? You're going to raise that thing?"
"Hey, hey, calm down. Seok-jun's team caught it anyway," Cheok-jeong said, trailing after her in an attempt to stop the visibly agitated woman, but Min-jeong's frown showed no signs of easing.
"That's not the issue here! If it was just about the reward money, I wouldn't say a word. But raising it? Did you even see what it did!?"
She pointed to the spot where the puppy had unleashed its breath when it transformed into a monster. The walkway where the breath had first struck was melted by the heat alone, torn up and then cooled, resembling hardened green paint left on a palette.
Even I think that's pushing it a bit.
Mina silently agreed with Min-jeong's assessment. The places where the breath had struck afterward were still bubbling like jelly, though less severely, thanks to Lee Jun and Seok-jun blocking them. Even if its true form was just a small puppy, wasn't this far too dangerous?
"Was that the flyer you saw for the reward?" Seok-jun asked, rummaging through his pocket and pulling out a neatly folded piece of paper. When he unfolded it, the flyer showed a photo of the dachshund and text in a format nearly identical to the one Min-jeong had shown earlier. Even though Min-jeong's copy had gotten slightly wet, the ink placement and wording were clearly similar. But Mina noticed a difference.
"Huh? The amount is different."
"What? Let me see!"
At her words, Min-jeong leaned in to check the flyer he was holding. Most of the format and text were the same, except for one glaring discrepancy. Even the size of the numbers had shrunk.
"Eighteen million won? The unit's completely different!"
Not only that, but red text at the top read: "Due to a printing error, the reward amount was listed incorrectly. Please note that the reward will be paid at the redistributed amount below."
They had already suspected the original amount was suspiciously high for simply capturing a dachshund, but everyone present knew the redistributed amount on this flyer was the one that made no sense.
"It was basically the same as fighting an A-grade monster. The amount is way too low."
Especially Mina, who had dipped her toes into A-grade hunter work, could truly feel how absurd the flyer's contents were. Capturing monsters alive was usually reserved for research purposes or when the creature possessed byproducts that could only be crafted into equipment under specific conditions. Naturally, the difficulty was far higher than a simple subjugation, so the bounties offered were always exorbitant.
"Monsters A-grade and above are extremely expensive to capture alive because it's so difficult."
If anything, the original flyer's amount had seemed cheap by comparison. Offering only eighteen million won as a reward under the excuse of a printing error was ridiculous—especially with the condition of live capture attached.
"Maybe the people who posted the reward just didn't know the puppy's exact abilities?"
"Could be?"
Just as Min-jeong seemed to accept Cheok-jeong's suggestion with a puzzled expression, Seok-jun shook his head.
"That's not entirely wrong, but it wasn't unintentional either."
All eyes turned back to him.
"How do you know that?"
"This flyer was discovered before the distributor could release it."
"What?"
Under their questioning gazes, he tapped his finger on the words "Kea Hunter Research Lab" printed on the paper.
"This lab has been under search and seizure since yesterday on charges of bribery and illegal research. The director is currently in detention."
Mina hadn't expected the puppy to be connected to something like this.
"From what I heard, the original flyer wasn't a printing error either. They put it out to secure this guy as quickly as possible."
"Which means..."
"Even if you hand it over alive, you won't be able to entrust it to them or receive the reward."
Seok-jun finally made it clear the flyer was meaningless and tucked it back into his pocket. Since the organization that posted the reward was essentially gone, there was nowhere to hand the puppy over even if they caught it.
"The worst part is that instead of properly posting it through the hunter bulletin board with the correct procedures, they used flyers and even falsified the amount. That's low quality."
While an ordinary puppy might not have caused issues, this was a mana-awakened dachshund. At the very least, it should have been properly listed on the bulletin board connected to the Hunter ID app. If ordinary civilians had seen the flyer and tried to capture it, things could have gone very wrong.
"Haa, so in the end, all that work was for nothing."
Min-jeong let out a deep sigh, her energy drained, and hooked her hammer back onto her waist. Just as it seemed the conversation had finally ended—
—Grumble.
"Ah..."
Mina froze at the sound coming from her own stomach. When she looked around, everyone was staring at her, clearly having heard the noise. Her lips trembled.
Why does this only happen in front of Seok-jun when I'm perfectly fine otherwise!?
Chasing the puppy had made them miss lunchtime by a wide margin, so it was a natural bodily reaction, but it felt like her stomach always growled more loudly whenever Seok-jun was around.
"It's well past lunchtime. Would you like to have a meal together first?"
His nonchalant voice eased her embarrassment as she kept her head down.
"Y-yes! Let's do that."
Since they had originally planned to meet around this time anyway, she accepted Seok-jun's suggestion, thinking it worked out well. Just as her embarrassment began to fade and she smiled, Min-jeong's voice cut in.
"Hold on, we were just about to go eat too. Mind if we join?"
She stood with her arms crossed, eyeing them with a sly look. When Mina met Cheok-jeong's gaze behind her, he simply shrugged with a grin.
"Oh! Me too! I'm hungry too! What are we eating?"
To make matters worse, even Yeeun, who had been quietly watching the dachshund in Seok-jun's arms, waved her hands enthusiastically.
"It's been a while since we've all gathered like this."
Min-jeong's gaze remained fixed solely on Mina as she spoke, so Mina couldn't help but understand the meaning behind it, whether she wanted to or not.
"W-well, sure."
Even though she had caught the implication, the atmosphere had already shifted to one of eating together, leaving her no choice.
"Then let's go to Old Man Yong's place."
"Whoa! Old Man Yong's means meat, right? Awesome!"
Even the usually quiet Lee Jun suggested a place, and Yeeun hopped around happily. Mina let out a sigh, thinking that today was clearly not a day for the walk Pomi had wanted.
"Is this Old Man Yong's place?"
The spot they arrived at was an old restaurant. A building made of thick vinyl stretched over a metal frame in a gravel-filled yard, resembling a greenhouse, but the interior visible through the plastic clearly showed it was a barbecue joint, with five iron tables featuring sunken centers.
"Yes, they mainly serve dwitgogi here."
"Dwitgogi..."
Mina recalled the restaurants she occasionally passed that advertised dwitgogi.
"I've seen them before, but I've never tried it."
"Eh? Really?"
Cheok-jeong's surprised voice made her flinch. His wide-eyed stare made her feel oddly self-conscious.
"Noona, were you more of a sheltered young lady than I thought..."
"That has nothing to do with what I eat!"
It was simply unfamiliar because there hadn't been any places serving that kind of meat where she used to live.
"Old Man Yong, we're here!"
"Hmm? Oh, yeah."
When they stepped inside, they greeted the elderly man who was sitting blankly on the wooden floor as usual.
"Is it okay to bring a puppy into the restaurant?"
The floor was just gravel with no covering, and the seats were simple red plastic chairs, so there was no need to remove shoes, but the dachshund they had brought along still worried her.
"Hehe, your name from now on is Mungmeong!"
"Kkiiing."
The puppy was now tied with a mana rope Seok-jun had created, serving as a leash, and was being held in Yeeun's arms. It trembled pitifully, but Yeeun paid no mind and rubbed her cheek against its fur.
"Uh, uh, uh."
The old man seemed to say something at the sight, but it was impossible to understand.
"Old Man Yong, you forgot your dentures again."
Lee Jun handed him a small blue plastic container that had been nearby.
"It's fine right now. Just put it on the ground."
"O-okay."
Yeeun finally set the puppy down, and it immediately hid behind a chair and lay there as if it had come back to life.
"First, five servings of dwitgogi and five servings of gabrisal, please."
At Seok-jun's order, various side dishes including fresh kimchi came out first, followed by a charcoal brazier placed in the center of the table. Since there were so many of them, they had to connect two tables, though the round shape made the connection less noticeable. At least sitting next to Seok-jun was a small relief.
"Tch."
Min-jeong's displeased glare lasted only a moment before plates of meat Mina had never seen before—cut alongside potatoes and mushrooms—were brought out. There were chunks of meat that looked too uneven to grill properly, along with neatly sliced but small and extremely thin pieces resembling samgyeopsal.
"Is this really meant for grilling?"
"Then why do you think it came with the grill, miss?"
"Ugh."
Min-jeong's sarcastic reply came at Mina's question. Even though she told herself it was nothing, she felt oddly annoyed and shot her a glare before sighing, her energy drained.
I thought maybe today we could finally have a proper date...
She had been busy, and Seok-jun was always off doing who-knows-what, so this was a hard-won promise. Mina downed a shot of soju, feeling her insides burn.