Isabella Chambers
Isabella Chambers.
An aspiring hunter from Britain.
The reason she enrolled in a hunter academy overseas was simple enough: the academies back home simply couldn't compete with those of other nations.
Britain had only three academies to its name — the 45th, the 61st, and the 105th. So she looked elsewhere.
Korea, Japan, the United States, China. In that order, they held the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Academies. Of those, Isabella chose Korea — for three reasons.
First, it was home to the world's finest: the 1st Academy. Second, it also boasted the 5th, 7th, and 10th. And last, she could already speak the language fluently.
Isabella was a devoted fan of Korean dramas. Watching them with subtitles, she decided, killed the immersion — so from a young age she had thrown herself into studying Korean and Hangul, all for the sake of sinking deeper into her shows. She even had Korean friends, and by twenty she spoke the language so well that no one would have doubted her if she claimed Korea as her motherland.
So Isabella applied to the academies in Korea. The 1st, 5th, 7th, and 10th — and the 13th, 14th, 17th, and 20th for good measure. The truth was, anything below the 10th was more or less the same. Those lower-tier applications were pure insurance against rejection from the top schools; she had no intention of enrolling even if she got in. Their numbers might have been higher, but the gap between them and Britain's own 45th Academy wasn't that wide.
Then the results came.
Isabella was rejected by the 1st, 5th, 7th, and 10th Academies.
Document screening? Me? After all the Korean I've mastered…!
Speaking Korean well, she realized too late, was no advantage at all. Next came the 13th and 14th — both of them also cut her at the document stage.
This can't be happening…
She had already entered the country, so sure of her acceptance that the blow left her in despair. The one mercy, if it could be called that, was scraping by into the 17th and 20th Academies.
……
She had never planned to go. But she revised that decision almost at once.
I-image matters, too… The 17th Academy has a higher number, doesn't it? Better than the 45th, at least…
She would make her peace with reality. She hadn't even applied to the 45th, so that door was already closed.
Before leaving home, Isabella had boldly declared she would enroll at the 1st Academy. The reality was the 17th. Too ashamed to ask her parents for money, she resolved to earn her own living expenses — and not long after starting school, she found a part-time job.
Magic Stone transport. Women avoided it, which meant the hourly pay was excellent.
It should be fine. Side effects from Magic Stone exposure are rare, after all.
Had her parents known, they would have forbidden it outright. But this was a job she was keeping secret from them, so that hardly mattered. She wasn't particularly afraid of the side effects, either.
What Isabella had overlooked was that side effects weren't the only reason people shunned this work.
The other reason was simply this:
Area C is hell…
The work was harder than she had imagined. Area C, where newcomers were assigned, had especially rough terrain, making the labor all the more grueling. The mana she wrapped around her body for physical reinforcement would drain dry in a matter of tens of minutes.
What if I just… quietly siphoned some mana from the Magic Stones to top myself up?
The temptation flickered for a moment. Then she shook her head and came back to her senses. Doing that could trigger side effects — and it was basically a crime.
How is anyone with low mana supposed to manage this…?
She couldn't take any more. Her patience had hit its limit, and so had her body. After endless deliberation, she finally decided to run.
Hurrying down the hill, she had the rotten luck of walking straight into the transport team leader — and beside him, a familiar face.
K-Kang Hahwi? What's he doing here?
Isabella froze, eyes gone wide with shock.
…Don't tell me he applied for this part-time job too?
Running into a classmate in a place like this was bad enough. Running into a boy she couldn't stand was worse. What kind of cursed coincidence was this?
"Miss Isabella? Where are you headed?" Ji Jinhyeok asked.
"Ah, well…"
"You're not running off because the work's too hard, are you?"
Isabella hesitated briefly. She was already caught — maybe she should just be honest and quit?
She stole a sidelong glance at Kang Hahwi, and changed her mind.
A complete stranger would have been one thing. She refused to look pathetic in front of a classmate. And more than that — she refused to lose.
She wanted to wipe away the humiliation of her last defeat. It had been a one-sided contest of her own making, but the fact remained: she had lost to Kang Hahwi.
A cocky guy who coasts on a pretty face needs his pride taken down a peg.
Isabella had always carried a prejudice against handsome men. People with that bias were naturally inclined to dislike Hahwi — and in barely a week, his attitude had already earned him a reputation around the academy as an arrogant pretty boy.
I can't lose again. I won't quit until Kang Hahwi does first.
This was a contest of who would break first. She would watch his face when despair hit him.
…One taste of failure should knock that arrogance out of him and set him straight. In the end, it's for his own good. Arrogant hunters die young, after all.
With that thought tucked away, Isabella turned around and climbed back up the hill toward Area C.
We arrived at Area C. Everyone there was sitting down, resting — it looked like break time. Ji Jinhyeok gathered them up and introduced me.
"Everyone, say hello. This is Kang Hahwi, our new hire."
Every gaze in the place swung toward me.
"Whoa. He's gorgeous."
"That face is insane…"
"Why's a guy like that doing this kind of part-time work? He could make easy money modeling."
"Maybe it's because he's a little short?"
"He's not that short. His proportions are solid."
The ones openly gushing were all men. The women only stole glances, careful not to be obvious about it.
…More women here than I expected.
The gender ratio was nearly fifty-fifty — more women than in the other zones. Still, I decided to tough it out. I couldn't bolt on day one. Once I got reassigned to a different area, things would improve.
"Come to think of it, Miss Isabella mentioned she attends a hunter academy as well…" Ji Jinhyeok looked between Isabella and me. "You two aren't from the same school, are you? Haha."
I didn't answer. I just pretended we'd never met. Isabella avoided my eyes without a word either. Judging by her attitude, she really did dislike me.
At first I had no idea why. Now I did.
I still don't get why she feels so competitive with me… but the reason she hates me is obvious enough.
My attitude was rude. When girls tried to talk to me, I ignored them or answered in monosyllables — that had to be it. Not that I particularly cared. Isabella wasn't the only person who disliked me. Misunderstandings could be cleared up later, at a leisurely pace. I couldn't spare the energy to fret over every person who hated me right now.
Even then, plenty of people would never come around — and that was fine. Let those who wanted to dislike me keep at it. I couldn't expect the entire world to like me.
"All right, break's over! Let's get back to work!"
Ji Jinhyeok clapped his hands and called out. And so my first part-time job in this world — hauling Magic Stones — began.
Area C had a nasty reputation. Most people fled within a day. Lasting a full week was considered impressive. I'd braced myself accordingly, but…
This is more doable than I thought?
Hard? Absolutely. Unbearable? Not really. People ran from work this intense? I had to wonder if those quitters had spent their whole lives on soft jobs.
And this work… I'm starting to like it, in a weird way.
During shifts, there was no room for conversation. The labor was too demanding for small talk, which meant women almost never approached me. They were too busy to stare, either. Breaks were the same — everyone sprawled on the ground, focused on recovering. The occasional energetic girl would try to strike up a chat, but the short rest periods made it manageable enough.
This is more than satisfactory. No need to look for another part-time job.
I was thinking that while hauling Magic Stones when a loud voice cut across from Isabella's direction.
"Hey, Miss Isabella? Could you move a little faster? We're making two trips in the time it takes you to make one."
"Ah, yes! I'm sorry!"
A woman scolded her. Once that woman passed, a man stepped up with open irritation in his voice.
"Look, could you at least haul more per trip? We're all getting paid the same, but you're the only one doing less work. It's not like you're getting paid less than the rest of us."
"I'm sorry! I'll carry more!"
It didn't stop there. After the man left, another woman approached her.
"Stop making such a show of how hard it is."
"Pardon?"
"Every time you carry a Magic Stone, you pant so loudly it's disgusting to listen to."
"Uh… that's just a natural physiological response, I can't really—"
"So what? Are you the only one struggling? We're all exhausted, and the rest of us just deal with it."
"Ah, yes… I'll be more careful…"
"Good. Watch yourself. Nobody wants to hear a girl gasping like that. You're not a man."
"Yes, ma'am…"
That one just seemed to hate Isabella on principle. At any rate — effort aside — Isabella was genuinely terrible at this job. The supervisors clearly agreed.
"That Isabella kid. She tries hard, but she's useless at the actual work."
"Doesn't even seem like she can reinforce her body with mana properly. Is she really an academy student?"
"Boss, should we just cut her?"
"…I'll decide after I see how many stones she moves today."
Whether she'd overheard the supervisors or not, Isabella scrambled to pick up her pace and pile on more Magic Stones.
Kind of pitiful, honestly.
Her eyes were bloodshot red, as if she were fighting back tears. She was having a rough time in a foreign country. Watching her force herself to keep going, I figured her family situation probably wasn't as comfortable as mine.
She hates me, so I wasn't really looking to get involved…
After a brief deliberation, I decided to help her on the quiet. We weren't friends, but we did attend the same academy — same class, even. Of course, I planned to help without her noticing. No point wounding her pride.
This should work.
I checked the surroundings carefully. Then, when no one was looking, I slipped some of the Magic Stones I'd carried onto the pile that was supposed to be Isabella's. The next load, too. And the one after that. I kept it up until the shift ended.
We all got paid the same anyway. And even with the quiet donations, my own haul wasn't a problem. Even after secretly padding Isabella's stack, I was still moving more Magic Stones than anyone else — nearly twice as many.