Preparing for a Guest (1)
News reached me on the way to the Hunter Bureau — brief, but enough.
The World Ranker coming to Korea was Diana.
“Ha.”
A hollow laugh escaped me before I could stop it.
I'd known the UK Magic Tower would react eventually. To people who bought up every magic tool on sight, price be damned, hoarding them into a monopoly, Horizon and the Breeze Wand must have been a thorn in their side for a while now.
I'd guessed they'd come at us one way or another before long.
“…I just didn't expect the head of the Tower herself to make the move.”
The moment I received the call, I finished my preparations and headed straight for Seong Ju-ah.
It might seem strange for the Hunter Bureau to mobilize over a single hunter's visit — but when that hunter is World Ranker-class, the story changes entirely.
And Diana wasn't just any World Ranker. She was the master of the Magic Tower's headquarters.
One of those titles alone was enough to choke the breath out of you, and she wore two of them at once.
“Tae-hyun-ssi!”
As I stepped into the Hunter Bureau, Seong Ju-ah hurried toward me.
Her dark circles somehow looked even worse than before. If not for the preternatural stamina awakened hunters possessed, she'd probably have collapsed a hundred times over by now.
“What's going on?”
“Well, it's… ah! The article's just gone up, actually.”
She handed me a tablet with the article on screen.
[URGENT] 'World Ranker' Diana. Planning Visit to Korea?
[URGENT] Diana to Visit the Republic of Korea.
Both were breaking alerts posted within minutes of each other. I tapped the video attached to the article, and there was Diana, mid-interview.
A composed smile, eyes curved like crescent moons.
Her silver hair spilled down softly, beautiful as moonlight.
— Magic tools from Korea have been making headlines lately. What are your thoughts on the matter?
When the reporter asked, she tilted her head slightly and answered.
— It's a fascinating issue. Truly fascinating. I've been following it with great interest myself.
Dignity radiated from her every word, from the very timbre of her voice.
She looked every bit the part of the greatest mage on Earth at this moment in history.
But knowing her true personality as I did, it all came across as nothing more than a masquerade.
'First Owl.'
How could that keyboard warrior and the woman on screen possibly be the same person?
— Creating magic tools is a feat no one has ever managed before, anywhere. Not in the UK, and not even in our own Tower, for that matter.
— That's why I'd like to speak with him directly.
At Diana's cryptic remark, the reporter reflexively pressed for more.
— Speak with him directly… meaning?
— Lee Tae-hyun, the representative of Horizon. As the master of all Magic Towers and the one who leads those who pursue magic, I can't simply let this pass.
She smiled into the camera.
— I rather like Hunter Lee Tae-hyun. Who knows? Perhaps he could become a 'good partner' for me.
— Then will Hunter Lee Tae-hyun be invited to the UK soon…?
— Oh my, how could I ask such a busy man to come all this way?
And then came the words that followed.
— I'll come to see him myself. I do hope he has time next week.
A World Ranker had announced her visit to Korea.
Unsurprisingly, public reaction was pure pandemonium. Some were even getting carried away with fantasies that Korea might follow in the UK's footsteps and become the next great magical superpower.
And above all, every manner of speculation flew back and forth over what Diana's mention of a 'good partner' was supposed to mean.
“A World Ranker… coming to Korea….”
Seong Ju-ah downed her coffee in one continuous gulp without pausing for breath.
Her eyes trembled wildly — I couldn't tell whether it was nerves or sheer accumulated exhaustion.
“It is a rare occurrence, certainly.”
“This is not something you can just brush off with 'rare.' It's the first official World Ranker visit in history.”
A World Ranker occupied a position roughly comparable — and this is only a slight exaggeration — to a nation's head of state.
And the UK was a country vying for first place in the hunter industry.
And now that country's World Ranker had suddenly declared she was coming to Korea.
Considering how rarely World Rankers set foot in foreign nations at all, this was an extraordinary anomaly.
Which meant, by extension, that she was paying very close attention to Horizon.
“Ugh… looks like it's overtime again for the foreseeable future….”
Seong Ju-ah heaved a long, deep sigh.
The Bureau was probably in full emergency mode right now. With an unannounced VIP incoming, no one could afford to sit on their hands.
It was as if a nuclear bomb had suddenly been dropped in their laps out of nowhere.
“Hmm….”
I deliberated for a moment, then spoke.
“Ju-ah-ssi.”
“Yes?”
“Why not leave the preparations to me?”
“…I'm sorry?”
“Diana is coming to see me, isn't she? So it's only right that I handle the welcome.”
If the Bureau was willing to step in on my behalf, the least I could do was show the courtesy of preparing something worthwhile for the guest.
“B-but….”
Seong Ju-ah pressed her lips tightly together.
From the state of her, she clearly hadn't slept in days.
If she took on Diana's welcome preparations on top of everything else, it would genuinely break her health.
'That simply won't do.'
Seong Ju-ah was a woman destined to become the Director of the Hunter Bureau one day.
Build a rapport with her now, and when she eventually took that seat, everything I needed done would go that much more smoothly.
If only for that day to come, I had to keep steadily investing in our relationship.
“Ju-ah-ssi. Here, take this.”
“Huh? What's this…?”
I pulled out the bribe I'd had tucked away in my coat — no, the gift.
The moment Seong Ju-ah confirmed what the gift was, she let out a strangled shriek.
“Th-the Goryeo Hotel suite?!”
A stay voucher that did nothing but pile up, since I never used them.
Better to gift it to someone who actually needed it than let it rot like this.
“Once this business wraps up, take a proper vacation. You're going to collapse at this rate.”
“How can I possibly accept something this expensive! And nowadays even money can barely get you a reservation….”
“This one's guaranteed to have a room available anytime. It's a special voucher issued only to Cheonseong's direct family. Even at full occupancy, the hotel always keeps a few rooms empty on standby for these vouchers.”
In other words, she could set her vacation whenever she pleased without ever having to chase an open booking window.
'Keeping top-tier suites empty as standing reserves.'
Money-wielding on a scale only Cheonseong could manage.
It was possible, in part, because these special vouchers existed precisely for entertaining guests of such rare importance in the first place.
*Gulp…!*
Seong Ju-ah swallowed — drool this time, not coffee — and reverently took the voucher in both hands.
“Th-thank you….”
“By the way, it covers one companion as well, so feel free to invite anyone you like.”
At my words, she showed a faint flicker of hesitation.
“Hunter Kim Jin would be welcome to accompany you.”
“N-no, no! Jin-i's been busy lately too….”
Come to think of it, hadn't he entered seclusion after my guild war victory?
Word was he'd been spending some very 'enjoyable' time with the Fist King.
“Hmm, I see. Well, it's your call, Ju-ah-ssi.”
Anyway — that topic was closed.
“Leave this Diana matter to me.”
All that remained now was to prepare a welcome our guest would never forget.
'Tower Master Diana.'
If you thought I wouldn't see through your little game, you were sorely mistaken.
I know every last thing you've done, perfectly well.
'A good partner?'
Sorry, but that seat is already taken.
There's no room for you there.
Holding back a laugh, I began plotting out my schedule.
'Welcome.'
I'll make sure you leave with a memory you'll be turning over for the rest of your life.
“…Is that information true?”
Amid a blaze of light so fierce it threatened to blind, a figure curled the corners of its mouth in amusement.
“Yes. It is certain.”
A figure bowed low before him — a hunter whose body had partially mutated into something monstrous — delivered his report.
“Diana will be away from Magic Tower headquarters for some time.”
“How delightful. Nothing but pleasant news these days.”
The being within the light wore a sneer.
“Elpiros. As if that fool of a woman's blunder weren't enough, now fortune comes knocking.”
She had gone so far as to split off a fragment of her own soul to forge an avatar — and had been thoroughly, spectacularly defeated by Yeokcheon all the same.
Thanks to that, one of their long-laid plans — the knighting of Behemoth — had collapsed, and the Advent Cult's Japan branch had been wiped out entirely.
'And on top of that, the true nature of the Moon Fragments has been dragged into the open.'
It was, in every sense, a humiliating defeat at the hands of a single human.
The Prophet had raged and sealed Elpiros away for a time.
— Aaah…! P-please, mercy! I won't fail again, I swear!
A form of punishment, in other words.
“Kuhahat!”
To him, nothing could have been more satisfying.
'For some reason, that woman has never sat well with me.'
He savored the memory of Elpiros's sealing for a long moment before turning his focus back to the present.
After this latest failure, the Prophet's disillusionment with his Cardinals would have only deepened.
Which meant that if he distinguished himself now — with a truly magnificent feat — the Prophet was certain to be pleased.
“The optimal moment to achieve our goal.”
The Advent Cult's UK branch.
Like their Japanese counterparts, they too had been assigned a mission.
And to accomplish it, the UK's Magic Tower had to fall.
Until now, Diana had held the line, and that made it anything but easy.
'But now, the story changes.'
A woman who so rarely left her post was finally stepping away — this opportunity had to be seized without fail.
Which meant that this matter…
“I will handle it myself.”
“Wh-what?! You yourself, Your Eminence…?!”
He would see it through to the end with his own two hands.
“I am not like those fools who entrust everything to their underlings and then fail half-heartedly.”
Toppling the Magic Tower would not simply end with the fulfillment of their goal.
It would shatter the very symbolism of what could be called the First Guild.
It would deal humanity of this world a staggering blow, and at the same time throw the so-called 'Golden Generation' of Britain into chaos — carving out the perfect environment to work in the shadows behind it all.
'Humans are fragile creatures, after all.'
When a symbol wavers, they scatter of their own accord in search of survival, and their bonds weaken.
Into those cracks, he would drive — and forge ever more 'knights.'
“All of it… for the day when He descends….”
The being within the light walked slowly outward.
A face like carved facets, short white hair.
A strikingly handsome man, his entire body covered in bronze-toned skin.
Cardinal Marca.
The man who had been radiating a fearsome, unnatural aura reined his power back in a single breath and called out softly.
“Sword of the Sun.”
Fwoooosh!
Two blades of pure light materialized in his hands.
“It's been a while since I stretched my body.”
“We shall prepare at once.”
Before long, countless monsters materialized into the chamber where he stood.
Each wore some crown-like device upon its head, and they rampaged savagely, charging at everything in sight with the ferocity of things bent on grinding it all to paste.
“Keeeeeagh!”
One of their forelegs was a hair's breadth from reaching him.
“Filthy things.”
Marca's blade flashed.
Seogeogeogeok!
In less than a single second, the monster's body was carved into dozens of pieces.
A dance — fluid, seamless, an unbroken chain of sword forms.
Not even two minutes passed before that horde of monsters had been reduced to mounds of meat.
Dissolving his blades, Marca spoke.
“Those who reach this realm — in this world, they call them by a particular name.”
One who surpasses even S-rank hunters.
The strongest of the strong, reigning supreme among all hunters.
“World Ranker.”
The Sword of Light had, without question, already touched that realm.