Return
In a room with a wall entirely covered in one-way mirror glass, the man in a crisp suit and Karen were engaged in conversation.
"So... You disappeared in 2006 and then opened a gate and returned?"
"That's right. Ah! Here, they call the magic door a gate."
"Haa... that word... No... No."
The rude tone was something one adapted to after working in this industry, but people of this sort simply never got used to it.
The term "returnee" existed separately, so people suddenly appearing from the gate to Earth were rare. Yet what this man named Karen was saying was utterly preposterous.
Ha! An alchemist opening a gate?
Officials affiliated with the Union thought the man before them was either trying to deceive them or slightly unhinged. They themselves had heard various information about returnees from other worlds and weren't entirely ignorant of Earth.
Among them was speculation about the world the man had come from. Belial, perhaps? According to that information, alchemists were all frauds. Even the few genuine alchemists were at best herbalists.
"If you lie here, you might get in trouble later, Jeong-il."
"What?"
"According to the remaining documents, it shows Jeong-il as your name, even though your resident registration was canceled after you went missing in 2006."
"A name I've heard in a long time. It was Jeong-il. Yeah, my name on Earth was Jeong-il."
It didn't bother him. In fact, anyone would find the story preposterous. After the official's threat about trouble had already been dismissed, Karen felt a rare flutter of excitement at hearing his old name.
Was it warmth? The heart that had been half-asleep from boredom was beating in a way that felt unfamiliar. How long had it been since he'd felt this?
"Still, change it to Karen. And what year is it now?"
"That's possible. It's 2036. It's been thirty years since you went missing."
"Thirty years?"
Karen closed his eyes again and fell into reminiscence. In the other world, 160 years had passed, but on Earth only thirty.
Well, he'd seen it briefly, but Seoul's streets had changed noticeably despite some damage from the gates.
Well, he must be out of his mind. Better to move on quickly.
While the man continued lost in his own thoughts, the official closed the folder he had brought and decided to deal with the headache in front of him.
Work piled up like a mountain, and returnees had varying levels of power and information. There was nothing to be gained from extracting it from this madman.
"Just hold your hand up to the measurement device once. That will finish it."
Still, as an official he had to follow legal procedure, so he finally extended the measurement device.
No matter how you look at it, it shows nothing.
Having to deal with hunters and awakened, he himself was a D-rank awakened. It would take some time for D-rank, but in thirty minutes inside the same room he would have felt it.
If the rank was higher than his, even if precise measurement was impossible, he would have felt pressure. Anyone who felt nothing was either a civilian or a top-tier ability user who could perfectly hide their power.
A returnee who is a civilian? That's unusual. All returnees so far have been at least D-rank or higher.
It was hard for Earthlings from another world to survive. Among the countless missing persons, those who survived all had at least some minimal ability. Otherwise they would have all died there.
Amazing luck. The first ever powerless returnee.
BEEP
Still nothing? Huh?
Unexpectedly, instead of the zero for powerless, the official's eyes widened.
[D]
"Huh? How?"
The official alternated between the device and the man with a confused expression, but the man simply sat quietly with a faint smile.
Adorable. The mana-stone technology has developed a lot over thirty years. It measures accumulated mana, so there are flaws, but it's still a standard.
It was the latest mana-stone measurement device, but anything with even a trace of mana flow was like a child's sandcastle on the beach to him. If it had been a machine with no mana at all, he would have been clueless, but...
Too high a rank is troublesome... and calling him a civilian would have too many restrictions, so setting it to the level of the official in front of him should be fine.
"D-rank, I see. Do you have any special abilities?"
The official's confused expression quickly settled as he remembered his short career and picked up the pen to record the reopened folder. Although all documents were now digital, legal paper records still had to be kept.
"I have a simple defensive technique."
At the same time as he spoke, Karen created a wall the size of a semi-transparent sheet of paper right in front of him. Since he didn't know what D-rank could do, he made it the size of the paper right in front of him.
"Truly... impressive. Understood."
The official still couldn't believe the measurement device. He hadn't felt the power of the same rank as himself?
Haa... I don't know. Let's follow the procedure.
While the official was considering whether to report this to his superiors, he decided to simply follow the guide's instructions.
Well... it wasn't even a higher salary, and following procedure wouldn't cause any major problems.
Among the causes of his fatigue that had darkened the official's eyes was overwork.
"Would you like to take a 30 million won loan from the returnee support fund? When you start earning a certain income later, the Union will automatically collect it interest-free."
"No."
"Looking at the documents, you have no relatives or family relations. Do you have a place to stay?"
A place to stay... originally, before getting caught in the gate and dragged to the other world, he had been living as an orphan. There was no place.
"None."
"Then you can stay for free for three months in the Union-provided standalone housing. After that, you can live there as long as you pay rent."
"Huh? Standalone housing? While I've been gone, Korea... I mean, the Union, right? How can they have so much money there?"
"However..."
As expected, it wasn't going to be free. The official frowned slightly and continued.
"Because the gate outbreak frequency is high, it might be... no, quite dangerous."
Ironically, after the gate crisis, overall housing prices had fallen. The simple reason was that many people had died at the beginning, so there were many empty houses, and of course prices had to drop.
But on the other hand, places with the Union organization and hunter association, guild-dense areas, or places with low gate frequency had risen far higher than before, and ordinary people could no longer even dream.
Damn it. I'm going to get my throat grabbed again.
The ones deciding policy were far above, but the official on the front lines who had to explain mandatorily was the one taking the bullets. He had expected the usual insults to fly, but the man's reaction far exceeded the official's expectations in a good way.
"Great! Really great! Can I ask for one thing?"
Karen raised his hand cheerfully. Helping the country, no, the Union (?) for the first time. He wanted to kiss the first Union he'd seen. His heart, which had been like a lump of stone, was now beating like this!
"Y-yes? What?"
"The most dangerous place without people! The place where the gate appears most frequently!"
"???"
As expected from the first impression, the silver-haired man before him was a madman. An S-rank madman, no less.
* * *
"Are you really okay? I can change it now. I have that much power even though I look like this."
"No, it's fine, but why did you follow me here?"
The house in front of him was really to his liking. A 40-pyeong two-story standalone house with a small garden. But why had Chaerin followed here? Moreover, she had waited outside the survey room where the official was and even driven him here in her car.
"No... I was just worried. About that returnee? Since D-rank gates opened when the gate opened, he probably came from there."
Actually, it was N/A rank, but Karen didn't feel the need to explain. He simply stayed quiet. She probably wouldn't believe him anyway.
Chaerin suspected that perhaps Karen had noticed some shadow she herself hadn't detected, but after the D-rank reading on the device, she had completely erased it. The measurement device had never had an error in the world, not even once.
"And there's something I need to apologize for..."
"Huh? Apologize?"
How long had they known each other to already apologize? In the midst of that chaotic time, they hadn't even spoken much?
"I'm sorry about saying you were crazy and taking you to the mental hospital."
"Hahaha, that's why you came all the way here?"
When Karen laughed loudly, Chaerin's face flushed red and she shouted.
"Hey! When someone apologizes, laughing like that..."
Chaerin's words were cut off by the hand now resting on her head. The gentle stroking from above didn't feel bad at all.
Karen didn't ruffle her hair but simply stroked it softly from top to bottom.
Adorable. Of course, it wasn't some strange feeling. Really. Her body looked young, but what was his mental age? It was just like stroking a little sister.
"Damn it... How old are you?!"
Chaerin, who had brushed Karen's hand away and was blushing, muttered half in embarrassment. If other hunters or the secretary Jeong-hyeon had seen it, they would have been shocked by Chaerin's unexpected reaction. An embarrassed, flustered Chaerin?
"I don't know."
"A fool who doesn't even know his own age... No... You're a returnee... Sorry."
Chaerin had never seen her mouth make such a resentful sound. To a person who had suffered because of an accident, returned after struggling, to say such rude words? Memories of losing her mind or various reasons flashed through her head.
"How old are you?"
"I'm twenty-eight. Damn it, my hair... No, ugh."
Chaerin tried to brush away Karen's hand that had come back to her head, but because of the guilt from what she had said earlier, she stroked him like a gentle cat and answered with a sigh.
"Then let's do it from today."
"Huh? Who decides ages like that?"
"Why? Can't you?"
When Karen stared at her face, Chaerin's face, which had barely returned to normal, flushed red again and she turned her head.
This guy is surprisingly handsome.
When they first met, the situation had been urgent, and when they came here, she hadn't been able to see in detail because she was driving. Now looking at him, he was cute and handsome. Sharp features, appropriately upturned nose, lips with a red tint even without makeup, and skin with no blemishes.
"Of course not."
"Then let's do it. And is there anything you want? Because I've laughed for the first time in a long time, my mood is really good. My laughter is expensive."
He's an odd guy... but he's not crazy because he's handsome.
His laughter being expensive was clearly not normal. But Chaerin thought that after suffering a lot in the other world, it could happen.
"No, I'm an S-rank hunter. I don't need anything."
Money? If she wanted, she could have as much as she wanted. Honor? Being an S-rank hunter itself was honor.
"Really? Impressive. Then if you ever need anything, tell me."
"Impressive! Now we're the same age. What kind of talk is that of an old man."
Actually, he was too old to even introduce himself as an old man, but he just smiled warmly.
"And you know what I need and say it like that."
Chaerin muttered sulkily, but Karen smiled even thicker than before and spoke with confidence. Of course, to Chaerin, it only upgraded him from crazy to really crazy.
"I'll listen to anything."