Chapter 238: An Unexpected Family Reunion (6)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 238: An Unexpected Family Reunion (6)
Behind the clumsy mask, her clear eyes were trembling violently.
Did you really think you could fool me with that flimsy thing…?
“…I think you have the wrong person.”
A belated denial.
Heh, so it's true.
She really planned to fool me with that piece of junk mask.
But the mask wasn't the only thing to point out.
“Your voice is a dead ringer for Seo-yeon Sunbae’s.”
If you were going to talk, you should have at least tried to disguise your voice, Seo-yeon.
“Uh, noooope. I don’t know anyone like thaaat….”
“……”
Too late, you brat.
Perhaps seeing my eyes grow cold, she realized that a half-assed excuse wouldn't be enough to get her out of this.
“W-Well, I’ll be going now.”
She mumbled nasally and quickly turned to leave.
Then she started walking down the alleyway in front of her.
Where does she think she's going?
Just as I was gathering my mana to block the narrow path with an earth magic wall—
“Stop right there.”
Fwoosh!
As a familiar voice echoed around us, a massive wall of fire erupted in the alley she was about to enter.
“……”
“……”
It was a voice laced with a cold fury that sent shivers down my spine just hearing it.
“Uh, um.”
Seo-yeon.
I think you're in big trouble.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
The situation on Day 1 was over.
A full two hours ahead of schedule, at that.
Why? Because a mother’s cold fury, sparked by the sight of her daughter in a shoddy mask fighting a Kraken Junior, was unleashed on the poor monster.
It was a good thing, really.
Putting aside the fact that we saved time by finishing the operation early, that kid Seo-yeon was long overdue for a scolding.
No matter how fearless she is, what was she thinking, trying to take on a Kraken Junior?
And so, Seo-yeon and I were caught on the spot and immediately dragged to the Haenam Surveillance Team's headquarters.
…Come to think of it, why am I here?
“Heeing… Unnie, I was wrong.”
“Be quiet.”
In a corner of the conference room, Ju-yeon, who had been summoned by her older sister, was kneeling.
She even had both hands raised high in the air.
Kneeling with her hands up at her age… now that’s a rare sight.
“I should have known something was up when you suddenly apologized….”
“Hehe.”
“I told you to be quiet.”
“Yeees….”
Han Ju-yeon quietly deflated.
Her face flushed, she kept glancing over at me, sitting in a chair in the conference room.
She must be embarrassed.
I guess so. She’s in charge of the university infirmary, after all. It must hurt her pride to be like this in front of a mere student.
“Haaah… Right. Ju-yeon, you didn’t force Seo-yeon to come here, did you?”
Han Ju-hee let out a deep sigh.
Her sharp gaze turned to Seo-yeon, who was fidgeting with the incredibly shoddy mask in her hands.
“Seo-yeon… tell me.”
“……”
“Why did you come all this way, even coaxing your aunt into it?”
“That’s….”
It would be hard for her to say.
There's no way she could talk about her incomprehensible trait, ‘One with Aptitude’.
No, if she was going to tell them, she would have done it long ago.
In the end, she needs to come up with a plausible excuse to smooth this over.
And she's a terrible liar.
Except when she's lying to her dad.
The longer she remained silent, the more fury built up on Han Ju-hee’s face.
“Spit it out.”
“……”
Despite the continued pressing, Son Seo-yeon kept her mouth shut.
This is going to get really ugly.
“Seo-yeon, you really….”
Ah.
The dam finally broke.
The mana around her began to glow red.
The temperature shot up at the same time.
Seeing a bead of sweat form on my forehead, I could tell she was absolutely furious.
“So you won’t talk? Fine.”
Despite the rising heat, her eyes grew colder and colder.
It seemed she had made some kind of decision.
Finally, her tightly pressed lips parted.
“If you’re going to be so willful, then your mother has no choice but to do as she pleases.”
Seo-yeon’s eyes, fixed on her mother, trembled violently.
They filled with anxiety, as if she already knew what was coming.
What on earth could it be?
“As soon as this is over, I’m submitting your withdrawal papers to the university. Be prepared.”
“…Mom.”
As Seo-yeon called out in a low voice, Han Ju-hee continued, her tone growing even more chilling, as if refusing to back down.
“I overlooked you leaving the Magic Tower and enrolling at Korea University on your own, so you should have stayed out of trouble.”
Hmm….
Seo-yeon’s hand, clutching the mask, began to tremble.
It looked like she was struggling to suppress something….
“I have no intention of dropping out.”
Her tone was calm, having barely managed to rein in her emotions.
But Han Ju-hee didn’t even pretend to listen to her daughter.
“Do you think I can’t make you withdraw without your consent?”
Unfortunately for Seo-yeon, she was an S-rank Hunter and the Lord of the Magic Tower.
A person with the power to request… no, to force a student’s expulsion, regardless of their wishes.
She could probably just make one direct phone call to the university president or vice president.
At her mother’s tyrannical words, Seo-yeon’s trembling intensified.
Whether she knew her daughter was on the verge of exploding or not, Han Ju-hee didn’t stop, adding one more thing.
“You can either come back to the Magic Tower or start thinking about a different career. Do as you please.”
Those words meant she wouldn’t allow her to be a Hunter at all.
Having said her piece, Han Ju-hee turned on her heel.
At that moment, just as Son Seo-yeon’s pent-up anger was about to erupt toward her—
“I’m afraid that won’t do.”
I stepped in.
“……?”
Thanks to me, the atmosphere grew even stranger.
Seo-yeon, who had been drawing up rage from the pit of her stomach, froze for a moment. Ju-yeon, who had been kneeling and listening to the mother and daughter with a restless expression, now wore an unreadable smile.
As for Han Ju-hee, the target of my words… she was glaring at me with a terrifying expression.
At the same time, the surrounding temperature, which had cooled slightly, shot back up.
Phew, it's hot.
I created a large chunk of ice in my palm and gently placed it on the nape of Ju-yeon’s neck.
“Hiiiii… It’s, it’s coool.”
Ju-yeon had always been terrible with heat.
Watching this bizarre act, Han Ju-hee’s face twisted even more.
“I thought you were someone who knew when to butt in and when not to… I guess I was wrong.”
In new-gen slang, she's asking if I can't 'read the room,' right?
She might feel my interference is completely unjustified, but I don't.
Because, you see, I'm…
“Seo-yeon Sunbae plays an important role on my team. When a key member might be forced to leave, the team leader can’t just sit back and suck his thumb.”
I'm the leader of the team she belongs to.
I thought it was a perfectly valid reason, but it didn't seem to register with her at all.
“You… Do I look like a joke to you?”
The temperature rose even higher.
It had reached a point where ‘hot’ was no longer enough to describe it; it was simply scorching.
The ice I’d placed on Ju-yeon’s neck melted away in an instant.
By the way, this woman has a strange way of talking.
“How could I possibly look down on a world-renowned S-rank Hunter?”
I know full well how powerful an S-rank Hunter is. How could I take that lightly?
If I did, I'd disappear without a trace.
I could feel how much she had changed.
To think she’d take a bit of backtalk from a junior—a weaker person—as a challenge to her power and authority.
“However, Hunter Han Ju-hee, it seems to me you’re disciplining your daughter the wrong way.”
“The wrong way? Ha…!”
Her cold gaze was now mixed with ridicule.
“On what grounds do you, who have never even experienced a parent’s discipline, get to judge that?”
Oh.
That one actually stings a bit.
I can't believe she just pulled a ‘What would an orphan like you know?’ right to my face.
Well… it stings, but that’s all.
It’s been a very long time since I became an orphan, and now I don’t even feel the need for parents.
I was about to brush it off and respond with a relaxed attitude, but…
“…Unnie!”
Han Ju-yeon, who had been sentenced to the punishment of kneeling with her hands up in the corner, shot to her feet with a shout.
…What’s with her?
“That was too harsh!”
Han Ju-yeon came to my defense, her face filled with anger.
“Stay out of this, Han Ju-yeon.”
The younger sister who had always shown only weakness to her elder.
“No, this time, I can’t just stand by.”
For the first time, she was raising a banner of rebellion against her sister.
What had gotten into the girl who would normally just bow her head and say, ‘I was wrong, Unnie!’ regardless of who was right or wrong?
Her defiant gaze, fixed on her sister, was like that of a gladiator in the Colosseum.
“What you just said was clearly out of line. Apologize to Do-jin, Unnie.”
“Did you… not hear me tell you to stay out of it?”
A heat haze began to shimmer around Han Ju-hee.
The heat surged as if her anger gauge had finally hit the ceiling.
Just as I was about to draw on my cold energy to cool the air even a little—
“I already told you, I can’t stay quiet this time.”
Starting from Ju-yeon, the red-hot mana in the room began to change.
No, it wasn’t returning to its original color, but being dyed another.
A mana so white it was dazzling to look at countered the red mana, lowering the surrounding temperature.
“Han Ju-yeon, you…?”
As if she couldn’t believe it, a flicker of surprise crossed Han Ju-hee’s furious expression.
And it was the same for me.
For the surrounding mana to boil in sync with one’s emotions.
That was something impossible to do without reaching the level of an S-rank Hunter.
In other words….
“I reached it not long ago. I was going to tell you after this was all over.”
“……”
After a moment of silence, Han Ju-hee began to radiate heat again.
“So, now that you’re S-rank, you think you can take me on?”
Hearing this, a look of despair washed over Han Ju-yeon’s face.
“Unnie… you’ve really changed.”
“…What?”
Han Ju-hee was visibly shaken by her sister’s words.
“The Unnie I knew wasn’t like this. Sure, you were fiery when you got angry back then, but… at least you didn’t look down on people with such a high-and-mighty attitude.”
She was right. The Han Ju-hee of the past was like that.
She only got angry for a clear reason and never treated people so arrogantly.
On the contrary, she was a warm person.
Yes, like a handful of warm flames on a cold day.
Her eyes trembled violently.
But it was only for a moment.
“…People change as they get older. Everyone does.”
She's right.
Everyone is bound to change.
But you’ve changed too much.
So much that it’s hard to accept it as the inevitable, natural order of things.
As Han Ju-hee spoke words that sounded like self-justification, Han Ju-yeon reached out and pulled Seo-yeon and me toward her.
“While we’re here, I’ll look after these two.”
“……?”
Hey, wait. I get looking after Seo-yeon, but why me all of a sudden….
“If any problems arise from this, I’ll take responsibility for that too. After all, I’m the one who brought Seo-yeon here.”
“Han Ju-yeon.”
Despite her sister’s call, Han Ju-yeon didn’t stop talking.
“Don’t request her withdrawal from the university. If you really go that far, Unnie… I might really start to hate you.”
Hate her, she says.
What a very Han Ju-yeon way to end it.
“Let’s go, you two.”
Han Ju-yeon strode past her sister, holding my arm and Seo-yeon’s tightly.
As I was unexpectedly led out of the conference room by her, my eyes lingered on Han Ju-hee, who stood motionless.
For the first time in my life.
Her shoulders looked frail.