A Hunter's Duty (2)
"You've got this!"
"Go get 'em!"
San Francisco, USA.
The 3rd Strike Team, which I had just joined, arrived in front of the gate, and the citizens who had come out to cheer us on were shouting at the top of their lungs.
They must have been pretty shaken up.
The gate raiding system had grown more and more organized over the years, and at least in developed nations, citizens no longer trembled in fear at the mere mention of a gate.
Of course, an S-Rank gate might be a slight exception — but a country at the very top tier, like the United States, was a different story entirely.
Yet this time was different.
Because an anomaly that could only be called America's own blunder had occurred.
An A-Rank gate had gone undiscovered, left to fester until it merged with another and became an S-Rank gate. A sweeping investigation to assign blame was reportedly on the way — that was what my secretary, Hannah Kapeltz, had told me.
And what I — no, what we — have to do is simple.
Clear the gate. Period.
Everything else, other people could handle.
"Alright, let's move!"
Raid Leader Paul Royce's voice carried the faintest tremor.
By rights, this should have been handled with even greater force than the 3rd Strike Team alone. Without question, this raid carried a far higher chance of death or injury than our last.
But every member behind me was doing their best to choke down their fear. Not one of them turned to run, and not one of them denied reality.
My goal this time is the same as ever.
I might not be the raid leader, but nothing else had changed. I would see this raid through to success without leaving a single person to die.
And so we passed through the gate.
"Hm? Doesn't look like anything special."
"Of course not! All S-Rank gates are the same."
"Don't chicken out, guys. Probably nothing to worry about."
The team's voices were louder than they'd been during the last raid. Their own way of beating back the fear, I supposed.
Fear or no fear, we had a job to do. I slowly closed my eyes and began to focus.
"Mr. Lee Dohyeon?"
"Just a moment, please."
"Ah — of course!"
Without meaning to, I'd cut Paul Royce off mid-sentence. But I had to concentrate. It was how I reduced the odds of casualties.
"·····"
With senses far sharper than before, I reached out and read the monsters' mana.
"Eighty-five Spear Lizards····· That's no small number."
Spear Lizards were S-Rank monsters famous for their raw power — trident-wielding reptilians with something almost fish-like about their forms.
"I see·····"
A low murmur rippled through the team here and there, until Paul Royce spoke up.
"Mr. Lee Dohyeon, may I ask something difficult of you?"
"Something difficult?"
"I'd like you to take an active role in issuing commands during this raid. For the duration of this raid, consider yourself my equal."
"I'm sorry — but"
We'd finished the scan; the next step was to fight. And here was Paul Royce, dropping a bombshell out of nowhere. Two raid leaders at once? But if that happened—
"Wouldn't the chain of command waver? You've only just joined us — you haven't had time to build chemistry with the team."
"I watched you closely last time. Despite joining us for the very first time, Mr. Lee Dohyeon gave orders as though we'd run a hundred raids together. Wasn't that thanks to your special ability?"
"·····"
Paul Royce had seen straight through to my ability.
He was right. Mana detection didn't end with identifying the enemy's monsters. By constantly monitoring my comrades' mana as well, I could react faster than anyone. The mana I perceived carried emotional states, momentary dips in combat capability — layers of information all at once.
And since coming to America, that ability had grown more powerful still.
"Then yes — I won't refuse. I'll see it through to the end."
"Thank you."
Paul Royce inclined his head toward me with genuine courtesy. I stole a glance at the members behind us — every one of them already looked to be on board.
Unexpected.
I'd never once imagined that paradise was waiting for me in America. If anything, I'd assumed it would be a fierce battlefield, a jungle.
But it was more comfortable than I'd expected. As though I'd been living here all along.
We pushed forward, and just as predicted, a horde of Spear Lizards rose up to block our path.
Shraaaak—!
"Mr. Billy! Fire magic, over there!"
"You got it!"
I kept my sword moving without pause. I fought at the raid leader's side, plugged a gap that opened on the flank, and dashed back to shield the mage hunters when they were pressed.
If the formation collapsed even once, they'd be cut to ribbons before a single healing spell could land. I threw every sense I had into it — moving, and moving, and moving again.
Shraaaak—!
"Whew·····"
I severed the last Spear Lizard's neck, then confirmed that not a single surviving monster remained outside the boss chamber.
"Is everyone in one piece?"
The raid leader asked, drenched in monster blood. Sweat had gathered on his brow, betraying just how grueling the fight had been.
"No problems here!"
"Easier than I expected, honestly."
"That's because our rookie's carrying the team."
"HAHAHAHA!"
"·····"
That last remark came from Billy, the mage hunter who'd been flinging powerful spells around like they were free. That much I could brush off — but when hearty laughter started erupting all around me, I couldn't help scratching my head in embarrassment.
"Everyone looks fine, so let's keep moving. The boss is a Death Lizard, as expected."
"You heard him. Let's go."
Somehow, I'd ended up giving the order to enter the boss chamber before Paul Royce did, and he'd backed me up without hesitation.
Unlike what had happened at the Shanghai gate, the identity of a boss chamber's occupant could be deduced from the ordinary monsters outside it.
Still — what on earth was that thing back then?
The overwhelming mana I'd felt before the Shanghai gate's boss chamber. In that one moment, deducing the boss's identity from the regular monsters had been impossible.
Was the East Asian joint raid team for the Shanghai gate coming together properly, as I'd proposed?
No — what am I even thinking about?
I had crossed the Pacific. I was an American hunter now. Shanghai's problems were Shanghai's to solve.
There was no way things would deteriorate to the point of American hunters having to fly over and bail them out.
"·····"
I forcibly shook off the useless old memories, and the boss loomed into view.
Everyone raised their weapons and threw themselves into the fight.
A ferocious battle. I screamed until my throat tore, darting from place to place. A fraction of a second clumsier, and someone would have been gravely wounded.
But it was strange, somehow.
"W-we won!"
"UWAAAAAH!"
"We did it! We won!"
If time were rewound a hundred times, I was confident I wouldn't make a single mistake in any of them.
And so we brought down the Death Lizard, turning an uncertain gamble into a triumphant success.
That's what matters.
Nobody was hurt, and the gate was cleared. That was enough.
***
"Hannah, when did you get in?"
"A little early. More importantly, how are you feeling?"
"Perfectly fine."
The morning after clearing the gate, I greeted Hannah Kapeltz in the office.
We'd pulled off something remarkable yesterday, yet after the flight home, falling asleep at my place in LA, and clocking in for work, it all somehow felt like no big deal at all.
"You were truly extraordinary yesterday."
"Hm?"
Hannah said it casually, tidying the desk in the office. There was something about that composed, aristocratic gaze that made me flinch in spite of myself.
"The media in San Francisco and across the entire western region have been running favorable coverage of you since last night. You'll be swamped with interview requests for a while."
"Ah····· I understand. I braced myself for at least that much."
In Korea, hunters were effectively celebrities — public figures, almost instruments of government PR. Things couldn't be all that different in America, and I fully intended to fulfill those duties too.
"Manager Jordan from the Management Department called your run genuinely heroic, and the Association President says he'll be meeting with you before long."
"Haha, you're embarrassing me. Anyway, tonight I'm meeting the teammates from yesterday for a little celebration."
"Have fun."
"·····"
"Is something wrong?"
"No — no, nothing."
I'd found myself staring at her without meaning to. Her lip color seemed a touch different today — but was that really something I was close enough to notice, let alone mention?
Something stirred in my chest for an instant, and I decided to look away for now.
"This place is nice, huh?"
"To blow off yesterday's steam, shouldn't we have invited like twenty strippers? This place is too big."
"Hahaha, save that for later. I can get you two hundred."
A large restaurant in Los Angeles.
The hunters of the US 3rd Strike Team, having rented out an upscale venue in its entirety, were roaring with laughter and trading banter.
Decorum mattered in official settings — but right now, there was no need for any of it. And they were all men, to boot.
"I was genuinely stunned yesterday. Lee Dohyeon isn't the man I thought I knew."
"True enough. The résumé was unusual — a young raid leader out of Korea — and they told us he had detection abilities, but nothing exceptional in raw S-Rank combat power."
"What on earth were the Koreans persecuting him for?"
"Right? I figured he must've had some personality problem. Turns out it was the exact opposite."
"Well, it worked out for us. And for this country."
"Make America Great Again!"
No matter where the conversation wandered, it always ended with somebody bellowing that at the top of his lungs. That was how these men's drinking sessions usually went.
"Starting the toasts without me already?"
"Mr. Lee Dohyeon."
"Sorry I'm late."
"Haha, have a seat."
Paul Royce, ever the gentleman, guided me to a spot.
Hmm·····
A gathering of well-off American men in their twenties through forties, in their own way perfectly wholesome. It was a little awkward — and yet, not bad at all.
Then, in the middle of it all, a rather dapper Black hunter burst out laughing at his phone. From the look of it, he was grinning at a photo of a woman, so I subtly observed the teammates on either side of him.
"Who's that? Whoa! That figure is unreal."
"She's the one who made a huge splash at the last Bactria's Secret fashion show. Hottest thing out of Brazil right now."
"How many times have you cycled through women this year alone?"
"If I didn't have this kind of fun, why else would I fight those disgusting monsters?"
"Haha, can't argue with that."
"·····"
Like middle schoolers in the throes of puberty, the moment women came up, my ears perked right along with everyone else's. It was strange, in a way — a gathering of S-Rank hunters talking like this so casually. I'd never once seen a Korean hunter brag this openly.
"I've got a date in New York in three days. VVIP room at the finest steakhouse in the city, then Broadway. That's just the baseline."
"Women go weak in the knees for plays and musicals."
The dashing hunter gestured grandly as he bragged, and I found myself staring at him.
"Are there places like that in LA too? Besides New York, I mean."
"Hm?"
Yesterday's hero had been quiet until now — and the moment I asked, every hunter's attention swung my way.
"Of course there are."
"Honestly, plenty of women prefer LA."
And then they all leapt in, eager to enlighten me, and by the end I'd noted down five different spots in my phone.
***
"Ahem."
The office in Los Angeles.
An hour had passed since I arrived at work and Hannah walked me through my schedule.
Today, something in me felt oddly broken — in a good way.
"You've had plenty of requests, but as a matter of policy I turned down all the minor outlets."
"Thank you."
"Heh."
Huh?
Did I hear that right? Just now — did Hannah let out a little laugh?
Small as it was, that reaction gave me courage. The courage to finally say the thing I'd been agonizing over since yesterday.
No more hesitating.
I'd decided to change.
"Hey, Hannah — so, um."
"Yes?"
I paused for a beat, checked my tone, and spoke.
"If you're free Saturday, would you like to see a musical in Hollywood?"
"I'm sorry — what?"
"Dinner first, too."
I kept my voice as steady as I could manage. But Hannah seemed a little startled, blinking at me.
"·····"
Yes — I was making a move. This was me making a move.
In Korea, I'd suppressed desires like this for the sake of duty. I didn't want to live that way anymore.
No need to overcomplicate it.
My circumstances, the dynamics, all of it — irrelevant. I was a man, and I liked beautiful women with great figures. I wanted a girlfriend. That was all there was to it.
And the most captivating woman I'd met since arriving in America was standing right in front of me.
"A musical, all of a sudden?"
"It's just — talking with the guys yesterday got me interested. Are you not into that kind of thing at all?"
"I used to go now and then, growing up."
"Oh — really?"
"Hmm."
My voice was getting louder than I intended, and just as I tried to rein it in, Hannah puffed out one cheek slightly, tilted her head — and then she spoke.
"Saturday. Evening. Hollywood. Yes — I'd love to."
"Ah·····"
I barely stopped myself from beaming like an idiot. Somewhere, I vaguely remembered hearing that it made you look uncool.
Success.
Granted, I'd have to keep putting in the effort once we actually went — but so this was all it took, huh. Really, it was nothing at all.