A Coffin Lurks in the Office
Her skin was pale, her voice soft. Lee Chae-young greeted him first.
“Long time, no see, Hunter Choi Yeon.”
Choi Yeon remembered it had been just fifteen days since he’d last seen her face. Not long enough to feel like a reunion… but the deep circles under her eyes suggested she’d been through something.
“Yeah, long time. You’ve been holding up?”
“……”
“Hmm…”
She’d been through it, all right.
Choi Yeon gave a bitter smile at the way the light vanished from her eyes. While he felt a twinge of fellow suffering, Choi Heeseok, seated across from her, stood and came over.
“Is that friend with you?”
“A stray visitor.”
“……I see.”
Choi Heeseok’s ears had heard the lie and he was replying accordingly.
Choi Heeseok nodded at once and lifted the white horn resting on his shoulder in its place. It was as light as a pebble on a path.
“I could carry it myself.”
“You’re the customer, Yeon.”
Oh, I was the customer? I thought I was just sitting here, so the hyung must be the customer.
Choi Yeon thanked him and took the seat opposite Lee Chae-young. The coffee on the table was still warm.
“Kkik…”
Choi Yeon’s view was blocked, so Lee Chae-young carefully stretched her neck. The long neck looked like a piece of chalk. She swallowed a mouthful with a gulp.
The appearance she’d shown him so often over the past eight years.
A hunter who ranked first or second in Chungcheongnam-do.
Even without being in the industry, anyone would recognize the name of a famous person in the same space. After all, they’d only just arrived and he hadn’t had a proper look yet.
“……”
Choi Yeon smiled faintly and waited.
From all his past experience, he knew she would soon turn her gaze back to him.
As he’d expected, after only a few seconds her white neck straightened again.
“Whoa, you scared me. I didn’t even think of getting your autograph.”
“Haha, I get it.”
“Hmm, hmm… Anyway, what’s with the ‘stray visitor’ talk? You weren’t here to teach the hunter apprentices, right?”
“That’s exactly what I was here for.”
“……?”
“Hmm…”
Lee Chae-young’s eyes left Choi Yeon’s smile. Just then Choi Heeseok had tossed the pebble straight into the cage.
“If the guest is here during lessons… does that mean you’re not a student?”
“Huh?”
“So the thing that just popped into my head is… huh? There’s nothing but assassins, as expected.”
“……”
Well, that tracks… but not quite.
She said nothing, yet Lee Chae-young grinned with certainty.
“So what exactly have you been doing that assassins keep finding you?”
“You’re saying the assassin part is confirmed?”
“Then what else?”
“Hmm. Flight student?”
“I locked you in the cage.”
“……I see.”
Lee Chae-young’s lips curved upward.
Flight student, huh… The fact that she made no real effort to hide it was so her that it was funny.
The problem was, she kept showing off a look that didn’t match her claim, and yet people kept believing her.
“Anyway, I haven’t been doing anything shady. I just worked my butt off.”
“Worked your butt off? You, Hunter?”
“……That’s right. Or do you think I’d go around creating problems for myself, Chae-young?”
“That’s… well, I guess that makes sense.”
Lee Chae-young nodded her head a couple of times in agreement.
Who was Choi Yeon?
The guy who, on the night they first met, would rather stare at the roof like a dog chasing chickens than miss going home on time.
Of course he wouldn’t have gone out of his way to stir up trouble.
She had no choice but to be dragged into the incident, just like that night she’d been saved.
“But you look pretty busy lately.”
Choi Yeon asked casually.
Curiosity about how the assassin had found her, how they’d managed to catch her—questions that tangled like threads—yet Lee Chae-young held back.
Since he’d asked first, she’d already decided to dodge.
“……Is it that obvious?”
“Yeah. The dark circles are getting darker.”
“I am busy… but—”
“But?”
“Dealing with unfamiliar work is exhausting. They keep dragging me around to meet people who supposedly can’t do without me. Uuu…”
People who supposedly can’t do without her?
“Kkak…”
The negative cog in Choi Yeon’s head started turning.
Because the kind of pointless thing high-ups loved to do had come to mind: dragging around a skilled, famous hunter like a trophy, just to raise their own shoulder level.
If that was the case…
“Who said that?”
“Hunter Kim Minseok from the city hall.”
“Ah.”
“Drreuk, thak.”
The turning cog stopped instantly.
Choi Yeon knew the name well.
“Then the people you have to meet must be the ones from the partner companies, right?”
“……You know a lot of hunters?”
“We’re colleagues. He’s the best in skill and character both.”
“Ah, ah. He does seem diligent.”
Lee Chae-young nodded.
Then she muttered under her breath, and when put together it meant that every time she tried to do something, he’d blocked her.
Minseok’s personality was straightforward, after all.
“By the way, what brings you all the way to the Seonhwa office?”
Choi Yeon asked casually, as if he hadn’t heard the earlier part, just to change the subject.
There was no point talking about someone who wasn’t there.
Lee Chae-young, sensing his intent, followed along quietly.
“It was set in stone today, so I dropped by on the way.”
“Set in stone for what?”
“My position? My treatment?”
“……?”
“Anyway. From today on I’m the special public provider with active skill engraving for Daejeon City Hall. I engrave tattoos or engrave items that the people the city hall connects me with bring.”
“O…”
Choi Yeon let out a sound of admiration.
He should have congratulated her, but he couldn’t bring himself to say it right away.
Thinking about it, she was a person who’d been forced to take this step because of her S-class skill Psyche’s Breath.
Was congratulations the right thing to say? She was starting over, and he didn’t want to pity her…
While he was lost in thought, Lee Chae-young let out a cheerful laugh.
“Congratulations. That’s why I came—to receive it.”
“Congratulations. Truly.”
“……Yeah, thanks. Thanks to you, Hunter.”
“Me? I didn’t do anything.”
“You stayed late that night. If you hadn’t come in time…”
Lee Chae-young’s words trailed off.
The Pakator and Amhyanghoe.
Even if viewed positively, they were whales fighting and the outcome was always a splash. It wasn’t just that her brain preferred negative thoughts.
“Lucky timing.”
Choi Yeon answered modestly.
If Nubyeok hadn’t told him, if he hadn’t seen Lee Jong-hoon’s tattoo, if Chief Kim Jaesang of the Seonhwa office hadn’t rushed him…
He wouldn’t have made it to Tuyoung Studio on time.
“I’m grateful for that.”
Lee Chae-young took a dark blue box from her magic pouch.
“Kkak.”
When she opened the box, a dagger neatly placed on black velvet inside was revealed.
No blade had ever been used. A faint engraving was visible on the blade.
“The city hall asked for an elemental skill engraving on the blade. They said it would greatly improve hunting efficiency.”
“Yeah, that’s what it should do.”
If you swung a sword with dual flames over an ice-element monster…
Even if you didn’t get the full dual-flame effect, you’d hunt more easily.
Seeing her show the dagger while explaining like that…
“So this is the successful work?”
“Successful work? Well… it does activate, at least.”
If it was a successful work, why mention that it activates? …Did it mean it wasn’t an elemental skill but something else engraved? Or had the inscription that was supposed to turn it into an elemental skill not been done?
Choi Yeon, who didn’t know how the work was done, could only guess in his head.
Then Lee Chae-young pointed at the dagger.
“Hold it.”
“Hold it? You want me to?”
“Yes.”
“Um, it’s fine. Handling city-hall property carelessly could cause trouble.”
“……?”
Lee Chae-young tilted her head.
What on earth was this nonsense?
The question was written plainly across her face.
“Hey, why do you think I brought this dagger?”
“To show off?”
“Hah? Hmm… I don’t look like the type to do something flashy, do I?”
“No, well… you didn’t bring it here to give to me, did you?”
“That’s true.”
“True?”
“Yes.”
Why is that true?
Choi Yeon asked with the doubt that arose in his head instead of the rebuttal.
“Did the city hall approve this? The kind of people who would just hand it over?”
“……”
“Chae-young?”
“……Well, I took it without permission.”
“That’s what?”
Choi Yeon stared blankly at Lee Chae-young.
Then, as if something had clicked, his gaze shifted to the cage at the end of the office.
The white horn lay there exactly as it had been tossed. The assassin was there, so why hadn’t the assassination ended yet?
“You took it secretly?”
“Yes.”
“You shouldn’t say it so boldly—”
“This, according to the contract, is a failure.”
“……?”
“I told you I asked for an engraving on the blade.”
“Tok.”
Lee Chae-young touched her fingertip to the blade.
She’d thought mana would be stored there like the mana stored in Lee Jong-hoon’s tattoo, but it wasn’t. Not even a little.
“It doesn’t activate?”
“Because the lightning-element engraving I carved on it failed. This is a discardable item as is. But.”
“Swish…” Lee Chae-young’s fingertip moved from the blade to the dagger’s hilt.
Mana was stored there, even if only faintly.
“The contract didn’t say anything about not recycling it.”
“……”
Choi Yeon looked around the room the moment he heard something so illogical. He hadn’t done anything wrong, yet it had happened naturally.
How fortunate there was no Chief Kim Jaesang in the office. If that gruff guy had been here, he wouldn’t have been able to smile as subtly as Choi Heeseok.
“Chae-young. This is a coffin.”
“A coffin?”
“Even if it’s a discardable item, the blade still belongs to the city hall.”
“Why can’t I just go somewhere and talk about it? Why would I spread rumors to the neighbors that I received it from you?”
“Of course I should keep my mouth shut… but no!”
“Haa, okay… If it’s a coffin, I’ll have to put it back….”
“Thak.” Lee Chae-young’s white fingertip closed the box.
The way she sighed with a big, regretful motion looked extremely spoiled.
But Choi Yeon, instead of watching Lee Chae-young, only looked down at the box. The dagger inside kept flashing.
“You really taking it?”
“……”
“I was going to give it to you, but the hunter refused?”
“What…?”
“Huh?”
“What skill is granted? Just… I’m curious.”
“Oh, I wonder.”
Lee Chae-young opened the box in reply.
The dagger on black velvet revealed itself again.
Unlike before, the hilt was visible.
The precisely engraved design was crafted for practicality, not mere aesthetics.
“As expected, seeing is believing.”
With that said, Lee Chae-young grinned. The smile that seemed to say “as planned!” wasn’t to Choi Yeon’s liking, but he pretended he couldn’t win and stood up.
Actually he couldn’t. The dagger with the skill-granted engraving was tempting him.
If Chief Kim Jaesang had been there as a brake, he could have stopped it,
“……”
Only Choi Heeseok was in the office now.
The one the Seonhwa office’s chief liked to call the Choi family runt along with Choi Yeon.
Choi Heeseok, the giant who chose to remain B-rank to avoid excessive duties, was still sitting there staring at the monitor with a warm smile, as if saying it was all fine.
“Thak.” Choi Yeon closed the box and picked it up carefully.
“……Then shall we head down to the training ground?”
“Yeah. Oh, by the way, where’s Chief?”
“Chief is busy lately with the orphanage establishment.”
“Orphanage…? Was the Seonhwa office supposed to establish one?”
“Originally not.”
“Originally? Ah, so something happened again.”
Lee Chae-young muttered, sounding as if she were certain once more.