Public Security Dispatch (2)
Public security dispatch.
This was why Association-certified hunter guilds enjoyed a heroic reputation among the public — unlike ordinary hunter guilds, which were widely regarded as little better than organized crime syndicates.
Because certified guilds do the work of the police and the military.
Even in a democratic nation like Korea, this was why the Hunter Association wielded more power than the police or the army — the actual instruments of state authority. Gates and dungeons. The magical beasts that emerged from them were completely immune to conventional firepower.
As was typical of academy stories and hunter fiction, the world of Aca Hunter was no different: the only force capable of destroying magical beasts was mana. And so, as a rule, only the Awakened could face them.
"That's why certified guilds like Flame are obligated to go out on public security dispatches. Not just raids," Yuri said.
Ordinary hunter guilds hated public security dispatch. It was essentially the same as police officers or private security guards walking a beat. It ate up a lot of standby time, it was tedious, and the payout didn't come close to dungeon rewards.
But for me, it matters.
At this stage, public security dispatch was less about fighting magical beasts and more about hunting villains. Densely populated cities had plenty of Atmospheric MCI monitoring centers, and most gates and dungeons were intercepted before they could even form. Which meant that public security dispatch — preventing villain threats and responding to their terrorism — was the perfect assignment for tracking down the villain syndicate known as Red Lake.
Villains have their own communities. Even if something looks completely unrelated, if you trace their actions back far enough...
Meanwhile, Yuri's briefing continued. Unlike Soso, who was technically the field team's leader but was so tight-lipped she left most of the talking to Team Leader Seo, Yuri's explanations were crisp, clean, and easy to follow. Her outfit was a classic office look, too, which only amplified the impression of a highly capable CEO.
She really does suit the role of a leader.
That composed presence, befitting her nickname — the Snow Maiden. The way she naturally stood above others. It was one of the reasons Yuri, even as a student council president, had been famous not just at Eins but at other academies as well.
But I never imagined Yuri would go and found a guild herself...
In the original story, the ones who created their own guild were Si-woo and Min-ah. Yuri, meanwhile, joined the Snowfield Knights — the knight order of Grand Duke Andrei of the Slavia Kingdom.
And she became a high-ranking officer the moment she enlisted, no less.
Not just because of her father's connections, either — it was her own ability. The Snowfield Knights weren't something you could compare to an ordinary hunter guild. They were a massive military force with the power to suppress both magical beasts and humans — something no modern nation on Earth possessed.
Did Yuri give up even that power... because of me?
Even though Yuri despised her father, Grand Duke Andrei, she had spent her life aiming to seize control of the Snowfield Knights through her own strength and, ultimately, strip the Grand Duke of his power. But the Yuri of now had founded Flame instead of joining the Snowfield Knights. More precisely — Undying Butterfly's Flame Scale.
I found myself recalling, all over again, what she had said: that she had named it that way so she would never forget me. The sight of this Yuri, walking a path so completely different from the original story, left me with a strange feeling. No — if I was being honest, I was grateful to her.
Because she's doing the work that Si-woo was originally supposed to do.
She must have been desperate, to take an unknown guild and turn it into an S-Rank guild in just two years. And the AA-Rank dungeon, the Uiryeong Man-Eater. If Flame hadn't cleared it, there was no telling how that butterfly effect would have unfolded. It had been a main episode even in Part 3 of the original, so the fallout from clearing that dungeon was surely still rippling through the world's underbelly even now.
Which means even the secretive Red Lake must have left traces of themselves somewhere.
The Uiryeong Man-Eater. It had been a hidden dungeon with Red Lake's influence behind it. In the original, Si-woo had used what happened in that dungeon to track down Red Lake's trail.
While I had been lost in thought, Yuri's briefing came to an end.
"Then let's move out. To the public security dispatch zone assigned to Undying Butterfly's Flame Scale."
The interns, along with Yuri and Team Leader Seo — Flame's people piled into a van and headed for their destination.
"Keep your in-ears in and stay on Team Leader Seo's situation reports. Within the assigned zone, you're free to move around as you like. Just keep your instincts sharp."
The group nodded at Yuri's words. Then everyone except Team Leader Seo and the intel team staff piled out of the van — four of them in total.
"Good luck, everyone. I'll see you later."
At Yuri's words, Dong-hyuk bowed his head. Public security dispatch. And of those duties, the one their group had been assigned was patrol.
Patrols were in pairs. Unexpectedly, I ended up paired with Yuri. The two of us walked side by side toward the patrol zone we'd been assigned.
Walking beside me, Yuri spoke.
"The intel team doesn't usually go out on patrol themselves. They have to compile the real-time data the Association's control center broadcasts."
"Then wouldn't it be better for me to stay behind and assist Team Leader Seo?"
At that, Yuri looked at me steadily. But then she shook her head.
"An operator's work overlaps a lot with the intel team's domain, but at the core, you're still a raid team member. So even if it's dangerous, it's right that you go out into the field yourself and get a feel for the atmosphere."
She was right. I wanted to be out in the field myself, after all.
If I want to undo Ruby's first-stage seal, I need to get used to being in the field.
In my current physical condition, running into a villain would get my head chopped off on the spot. But that was just as true in a dungeon. An operator had to be able to secure their own safety in any dangerous situation.
And if Yuri's my partner, I might have to worry more about the villain's life than my own.
Even so, I could tell Yuri would have preferred I stay in the van. Her expression hadn't changed, but I'd seen her eyelashes tremble when she made the decision, as intern supervisor, to send me into the field.
She's worrying over nothing.
She knew I couldn't use mana properly right now, so of course she was worried.
"Um... Minsu. Using an in-ear takes mana too. Are you going to be okay?"
"I'll be fine, Guildmaster. In-ears don't consume that much mana."
At my words, Yuri let out a sigh of relief before she could stop herself.
"Phew. That's a relief. According to Dr. Seong Chaerin's diagnosis... as long as your rehabilitation goes smoothly, you should be able to get back to how you were before, right?"
And as she said it, Yuri's expression was surprisingly bright. It was an expression full of honest feeling, so unlike her usual icy look — the same one I'd seen after the advanced training during our second-year winter break, when she and I had grown so much closer.
Yuri doesn't know I'm terminally ill, after all.
That's right. Professor Seong Chaerin had forged a diagnosis for my sake. The unnatural mana usage I was dealing with now was merely the aftereffect of a severe injury. As I grew more accustomed to the field and to mana, I would return to how I used to be — that was the optimistic assessment in the medical opinion.
Without that, I never would have been able to join Flame.
If it had been the intel team, maybe. But an operator who had to be deployed to the field and couldn't use mana at all would be disqualified from the field team. Fortunately, the forged diagnosis had been perfect. Given the stature Professor Seong Chaerin held in the hunter industry, even someone as sharp as Yuri would have a hard time questioning its authenticity.
And that's for the best.
If Yuri ever learned the truth about my condition — judging by her reaction just now — she might never let me into the field at all. And that couldn't happen.
"Yes. I'm recovering faster than I expected, actually. Want to see?"
I summoned a small fireball into my palm. It was only about the size of a tennis ball — far smaller than a standard fireball — but still.
"Right now it's barely even a lighter substitute, but it'll get better."
"A lighter? That's far too self-deprecating."
She said it with a pleased little smile. Come to think of it, before the advanced training — back when Yuri and I had been constantly at each other's throats at Eins — she'd teased me by calling me a lighter all the time.
And I fired back by calling her dry ice, didn't I...
I think that's how it went. To shove those old memories trying to surface back down where they belonged, I deliberately said something stupid in reply.
"Well, it's true. I'd be more useful than a convenience store lighter, at least. If you need it, Guildmaster, I could even light your cigarettes for you..."
Then, without meaning to, my eyes fell on the necklace around Yuri's neck. The moon-shaped mana stone I'd given her. A necklace imbued with fire-attribute energy — last time, I'd seen her using it as a lighter substitute.
She never wore it when we were at Eins. Was it actually useful as a lighter?
And Yuri noticed my gaze.
"Th-this is... wait a second!"
Then Yuri's eyes flicked to my own neck. A flustered look crossed her face, and she hurriedly tucked her necklace inside her shirt. Of all things, hanging around my own neck was the mana stone necklace she'd given me not long ago.
It was a low-purity stone with the side effect of raising MCI, but that particular side effect didn't matter to me.
And it has a mana-amplifying effect, so it's actually pretty useful.
Which meant Yuri's gift was an item I'd genuinely needed. Without this necklace, the fireball I'd just summoned really would have had nothing more than a lighter's worth of power.
But why is she so embarrassed?
Come to think of it, they were similar in design. And the two of us were in civilian clothes, disguised for patrol. We happened to be in a crowded shopping district, so maybe she was flustered at the thought of people mistaking them for couple necklaces.
No. There's no way that's it.
We'd been close once, but now Yuri and I were nothing more than a company president and her subordinate.
"Th-then shall we keep heading to our destination?"
I followed after Yuri, who had suddenly picked up her pace and gone on ahead.
Yuri drew mana into her palm. A moment later, from her finger, a white-and-blue light bloomed — Nibis, her S-Rank Ancient Gear. Yuri's mana resonated with Nibis, and a vortex of ice unfurled.
Crrrk—
And the pitch-black fog lurking in the corner of the alley vanished.
"Team Leader Seo. Fog at Atmospheric MCI 72. Elimination complete. Please report it to the Association control center."
Team Leader Seo's acknowledgment came through the in-ear.
"That fog had a pretty high Atmospheric MCI reading. If we'd found it any later, it might have developed into a small-scale gate."
Minsu answered her.
"It probably would have. The concentration was higher than I expected."
And Yuri was privately astonished. Places where Atmospheric MCI concentration ran high were at elevated risk of spawning a gate. That was why the Association's control center normally flagged predicted points for patrol hunters. If black fog like this existed at those points, eliminating it was a patrol hunter's duty.
But this alley — this was a spot even the Association's control center hadn't predicted, and Minsu had found it himself.
The density was high, but the fog was so small in scale that even my instincts didn't pick it up right away.
But Minsu, using the equipment he'd received from the Association on the last assignment, had found the black fog — a nascent gate — as if it were the simplest thing in the world.
That equipment. The search range is narrow, but the precision is high, they said.
And Minsu said it like it was nothing.
"This equipment the Association gave us as a reward is pretty useful. I can pinpoint black fog more precisely than I expected, without having to rely on instinct."
But watching from beside him, she knew better. Even with a high-resolution precision telescope, making a meaningful discovery still came down to the skill of the astrophysicist using it.
He really is... incredible.
And even after pulling off something that remarkable, the way he talked about it like it was nothing — that hadn't changed from the Minsu of their Eins days. Minsu had been just as composed even in the moment he'd defeated her, the rank-one cadet. Seeing that same look now, Yuri's heart skipped a beat.
No. We're in the middle of a mission. And I came here as the person in charge of this field. Focus on the mission.
The two of them emerged from the alley. They were still in a shopping district, and there were plenty of people around.
"That's already five black fogs eliminated. Even an S-Rank hunter will wear out if you keep slamming them shut like that. Let's take a break."
Yuri, who had been unconsciously following Minsu's eyes even then, hurriedly looked away.
"S-sure. Let's sit on that bench over there."
The two of them sat down on a bench. Yuri took off the sunglasses she'd been wearing and tucked them into her shirt. Watching her, Minsu spoke without thinking.
"Come to think of it, that hat and those sunglasses I bought you last time. They're coming in pretty handy. The design's a bit much, but they're good for a disguise like this."
At that, Yuri's fingers brushed the cap. Right now, special equipment had disguised her hair as black. And unlike her usual look at headquarters, she was in ordinary casual clothes with a hat and sunglasses on top. Considering Yuri's usual appearance, it was more than enough of a disguise.
"Yes. For a bodyguard or surveillance assignment it might be different, but when you're on patrol, standing out just gets in the way, so... kh?!"
That was the moment. Yuri, who had answered without thinking, suddenly recalled the contents of the guidebook she'd been rereading just that morning.
What it means when your ex uses a gift they received from you...
And when your ex-boyfriend recently gave you even a small gift. What that means...
And when you use that gift in front of your ex-boyfriend. Points to be careful of...
Minsu looked at the suddenly flustered Yuri with a puzzled expression.