A Classroom, and a Summons
Cat Wandering the Darkness yowls at the top of its lungs.
"Hey—! Do something about that dog smell—!"
Eunha, hat pulled low over her brow, lifted her head with a faintly tense look.
"So this would be your first time with dog grooming?"
The man in the thick horn-rimmed glasses asked it gently. Eunha nodded, barely.
"......I've been interested for a long time. I just never had the chance."
"I see. They do say getting started is half the battle. Even among our own students, you'll find everyone from middle and high schoolers to housewives."
He brought out a pamphlet he had ready and set it on the table.
"Now, if you'll take a look...... as you can see from the curriculum here, we work with a well-known faculty, and we cover a wide range of theory as well as thorough hands-on practice. We also run professional tracks for certification, and for opening a business of your own."
He fluttered through the booklet, opened it to a page, and held it out to her.
"If you're starting from nothing at all, the foundations class would be best. That said, plenty of people ease in with the hobby class first."
"The hobby class?"
"That's right. The hobby class meets only on weekends, Saturday and Sunday. If you're balancing this with a job, weekday hours are hard to come by. Forgive me for asking, but what is it you do?"
"I'm unemployed."
"......"
"......"
A brief silence.
The man pushed the glasses that had slid down the bridge of his nose back into place, then opened his mouth, his expression already smoothly under control.
"Ahaha. Well, everyone's in a panic these days over how hard it is to find work. Once you have the certificate, starting a business is entirely possible. Ahem. Well. Yes. You've come to the right place."
The consultation went on for about ten minutes more. After that Eunha walked the academy herself, and even stepped into a classroom mid-lesson for a short look around.
It was a strange and stirring thing. She could no longer even remember how much worry, how much courage, it had taken to come this far. Through the glass she stared, entranced, at the students bent over their practice.
"Well then. Nothing else you're curious about?"
Her answer was already decided. Eunha, who had been watching the students' practice from a distance, slowly turned her head.
"......I'll register."
Silver Moon Management, headquarters.
Siwoo picked up the file lying on the desk.
"An S-rank emergency summons?"
So they were trying every trick they had. Siwoo let out a short, scoffing breath and all but threw the file back down on the desk.
It had been quite some time since the Association last called on Siwoo—on Baekrang. After they brought Maestro into the Korean Association, things had seemed quiet for a while. And now this.
So the fire has finally reached their feet.
Gazing without interest at the papers sprawled across the desk, Siwoo roughly sketched the bind the Association was in. Korea's S-rank hunters came to only five in all, once you excluded Maestro Baek Yijun, who had changed his nationality, and Shin Siwoo himself—Baekrang—who had no official activity whatsoever. Of those five, set aside Gwi Hun, already living on borrowed time, and the reckless hothead Ayeon, who ignored even a summons from the president, and the number thinned again.
In practice, only three S-rank hunters are actually at work.
Great Sage Equal to Heaven. Dr. Plant. And Trickster. They were the real pillars of Korea's hunter world as it stood. But one of those three pillars had fallen not long ago, and Siwoo had already heard the news.
Trickster had gone out to subjugate an Unknown Gate that tore open without warning over Pohang, and had come back not only gravely wounded but under some curse no one could name. Because of it, Dr. Plant had pushed even her guild, Rose, aside and was devoting herself entirely to his treatment. It had not yet been announced to the public. Once it was, it would plainly sow anxiety among the people, and earn from other nations either pity or scorn.
Which was to say the Association, quiet for a stretch, had been left with no choice but to reach for Baekrang again.
"......What should we do?"
Jehwi, who had been quietly watching Siwoo's mood from the side, opened his mouth with care.
"What is there to do."
Chin propped on the desk, Siwoo lifted his gaze, bland, as if to ask why the question was even being asked.
"Get rid of it."
They had stuck a grandiose title like emergency summons on the thing, but whatever they meant to say was obvious anyway.
Something of that sort, surely.
Siwoo sighed, openly sick of it.
"......"
And yet, in front of that same Siwoo, Jehwi was hesitating for some reason, shifting where he stood. He could not simply clear away the file he had been told to clear away. He clutched it to his chest and began stealing glances, and at last, carefully, his lips moved.
"Um...... even so, perhaps you might look through the contents once? The Association's attitude seems rather different from usual."
"Different how."
"I hear they've commissioned a large number of Enchants from a crafting guild. And the summons wasn't only for S-rank hunters. They sent one to dark-attribute and fire-attribute hunters of A-rank and above as well."
"......"
Siwoo's eyes changed, just a little. He lowered the hand that had been propping his chin onto his knee and leaned back loosely in the chair.
An Enchant was the work of granting a piece of gear a particular attribute, or a resistance. If the Association, which dealt in hunters of every attribute, had decided it was short on people, there would be a reason.
At a look that told him to go on, Jehwi cleared his throat and spoke again.
"This is only my guess, but I wonder if a summons might not come down for Hunter Lee before long, as well......"
"What?"
This time his eyes changed for certain. Jehwi, seeing those neat brows give a hard twitch, flinched, shoulders jumping.
"H-Hunter Lee uses Black Flame, doesn't she? And the Association is looking for hunters of the dark and fire attributes."
Jehwi swallowed against a dry throat and added, his voice shrinking in on itself.
"Is there anyone better suited than she is......?"
"......"
Siwoo closed his mouth. Surely no silence in the world was more chilling than this. Had he said something he shouldn't have? The regret arrived a moment too late.
"I-I'll put it away."
Better to burn the thing, even now. He snatched up the file and was just about to turn his back.
"—Wait."
Siwoo caught him without preamble.
"Leave it there."
"Sir?"
"I'll look it over later."
Siwoo said it while tapping the tablet on the desk. Jehwi, who had been staring blankly at that indifferent profile, soon let the file in his arms slide softly down.
"Ah...... yes. Understood."
Tap. Tap-tap.
The sound of fingers on the tablet walked across the quiet. Had some task suddenly come up? Or perhaps he was only poking at it for no reason at all.
"A summons still hasn't reached Seonbae?"
Eyes fixed on the tablet, Siwoo tossed the question out.
"No. Hunter Lee Yura was officially measured as F-rank, so... even if they issue one, wouldn't it be toward the very end?"
A last resort. A patch. Jehwi did not go so far as to say that aloud.
"That so?"
Siwoo answered flatly and shut his mouth again. After a few more taps—tap, tap—he switched subjects without warning.
"How's Seonbae's fridge."
"Pardon? The refriger... ator, you mean?"
Jehwi blinked.
"Yeah. The fridge."
So he had not misheard.
......Wait. Out of nowhere? Jehwi hurriedly called to mind the inside of the refrigerator in Eunha's officetel.
"Well, I've been stocking it whenever I can. I did the shopping not long ago, so she shouldn't be running out of food just yet."
"And you told her to cut back on the beer and the internet?"
"Yes. I told her."
"She still keeping up with old broadcasts and that sort of thing? Those hit-song specials, whatever they were."
"Well...... I suppose so......?"
Stumbling through the answer, Jehwi turned his eyes fully on Siwoo.
Did he feel that odd stare? Siwoo, gaze locked on the tablet, creased his face hard and lifted his head.
"What are you looking at."
"Ah, n-nothing......"
Jehwi dropped his eyes with a small, startled breath.
So he is curious.
But contrary to the gaze he had driven into the floor, the corners of Jehwi's mouth kept trying, little by little, to climb. The director was curious. There was no mistake about it. About how Eunha was getting on—quite a bit. No. A great deal.
Jehwi pressed down those tactless corners and spoke in as even a tone as he could manage, letting off a careful air of this is not because you asked. I simply happened to think of it, so I am mentioning it.
"Oh, that's right. Lately her favorite bar snack has changed from dried filefish to chicken feet."
"......"
"She prefers them boneless."
"......"
"For reference, she takes the spice at about level three."
It was a spectacularly useless piece of news. Siwoo showed no particular reaction.
But Jehwi knew. Those ears were pricked this way. The proof was that Siwoo did not cut him off even once. Emboldened, Jehwi stopped watching his face and went on.
"Um, and last week she registered at a dog-grooming academy as well."
"A dog-grooming academy?"
Siwoo, who had held to no reaction until now, lifted his head.
"It seems she's been interested in dog grooming for a long while. She said she originally meant to go to college for it, too."
"I see."
A short, flat answer, as if it did not interest him at all. But the finger that had been tapping the tablet had stopped dead.
His eyes were on the tablet, and yet, so far as one could tell, Siwoo was thinking of something else. It was unmistakably that kind of look. Beside him, still hesitating, Jehwi carefully opened his mouth.
"The Kang Haenguk Dog Grooming Academy."
Siwoo left his head where it was and turned only his eyes. To that look, Jehwi added, smiling awkwardly,
"The academy she attends, I mean. I just... in case."
"......You've gotten pretty insolent."
"I prefer to think I've become competent...... haha."
"Get out."
"Yes, sir."
So he was being thrown out after all. Had he said something unnecessary? Jehwi slipped out at once and quietly shut the door.
The latch clicked.
Only after Jehwi was gone did Siwoo take his eyes off the tablet.
The Kang Haenguk Dog Grooming Academy.
It seems she's been interested in dog grooming for a long while.
"......"
He turned the tablet facedown on the desk, and this time moved his eyes to the file lying beside it.
Confidential.
Siwoo stared for a long while at the red characters across the top. Then, slowly, he reached for it.