Reunion with an Old Friend
“Yeah, it’s been a while~ Have you been well?”
“Yes, Mother. I really should have visited more often. I’m sorry.”
“Oh, don’t be. No matter what, do you think I don’t know how busy you are? Every time you showed up on TV, I was so proud that you were Hyunseong’s friend. Hohoho.”
“Thank you. Well, you must be hungry, so let’s head inside.”
Seolhee guided Mother into the house with impeccable grace. Hyunseong nearly choked on the sheer transformation in her demeanor, but he swallowed the strange feeling and followed them inside.
Seolhee’s house was far more than it appeared from the outside. The interior was staggeringly spacious; the living room alone was larger than their current family home.
“Whoa! Unnie, you live all by yourself in a place this huge?”
“Y-yes, I do.”
“But… isn’t it lonely?”
“Not really. Especially lately. Someone’s been keeping me very busy.”
Seolhee shot a pointed glare at Hyunseong as she spoke. He simply shrugged from behind the group and began exploring the house in earnest.
“It really is impressive.”
Even Hyunseong had to admit the place was extraordinary. The black-and-white interior design was easy on the eyes, and someone clearly cared about scent; a faint, elegant saffron aroma drifted through every room.
“The house I picked for you is similar. Actually, it might be a little bigger. It used to be where my parents lived, so…”
Seolhee’s expression darkened. Hyunseong understood the implication immediately.
“Oh dear… so that’s what happened…”
Mother reached out and gently rubbed Seolhee’s back in quiet comfort.
“Yes. They moved down to the countryside.”
“They did?”
“They said Seoul was too hectic for them…”
“Goodness, you scared me. I thought something terrible had happened.”
“No, they’re doing well down there.”
It turned out Seolhee was simply sad about being separated from her parents. Mother let out a relieved breath and patted her own chest.
At that moment, Hyeonji piped up.
“Mom’s not going to move down there too, right?”
She clung tightly to Mother, acting cute out of fear that she might say the same thing.
“What would I do all alone down there… unless you two were coming with me.”
“We’re not going. So you have to stay here too, Mom.”
“All right, all right. Now get off me.”
Hyeonji was hugging her mother so tightly it looked like she might never let go.
“Okay, it seems we’ve seen most of the house. Let’s finish the rest later and eat first.”
Seolhee seated them at a large dining table and began preparing the meal. As they drew closer to the kitchen, the aroma of food overpowered the saffron scent. The spicy fragrance tickling their noses suggested she had tailored the dishes to Mother’s tastes.
Seolhee put on the apron she had set aside earlier, returned to the sink, and quickly prepared an unfamiliar dish with several ingredients.
“Try this first.”
“What is it?”
It looked like a salad of raw ingredients tossed in some kind of seasoning.
“It’s ceviche, an appetizer I had in South America. The fish is neo tuna.”
“Wow, Unnie, I’ve never tried neo tuna before!”
Neo tuna was a monster from the A-rank dungeon Blue Sea. True to its name, it resembled a tuna, but live specimens were infamous for harassing hunters with their razor teeth and incredible speed. Because they were so difficult to catch, their flesh sold for over a million won per hundred grams. Knowing this, Hyeonji’s exaggerated reaction was understandable.
She popped a piece of the neo tuna ceviche into her mouth without hesitation.
“Mmm~! It’s tangy and fragrant, and the texture is perfect! Mom, Hyunseong, try it quickly!”
Mother, who had been hesitating because it looked rich, picked up some onion mixed with the neo tuna using chopsticks and carefully took a bite. Her eyes widened immediately, clearly impressed by the flavor.
Only then did Hyunseong relax and try the ceviche himself.
“When did you learn to cook like this? And you, stop staring and eat.”
“Oh? Right. I should.”
The meal continued with a spicy cockatrice stir-fry braised in a hot sauce, steamed rice, and a dessert of hwachae made from dungeon fruits. As expected of a top-tier hunter, Seolhee’s kitchen was fully stocked with ingredients from dungeons.
After the meal, they toured the new house they were supposed to see. The claim that it was only a five-minute walk from Seolhee’s place was no exaggeration. After walking through the garden they had driven past earlier, it took three minutes to reach the gate, and another two minutes down the alley before the house appeared.
“This is practically next door.”
“That’s what I kept telling you.”
Though not quite as grand as her own residence, the high walls and imposing gate were welcoming. Seolhee pressed a key card against the wall panel to open it.
“I’ll give you this later. Once you register it with your phone, you can open and close the gate remotely.”
“Oh, cutting-edge stuff.”
While Hyunseong marveled, Seolhee led them through the open gate and showed them the inner garden and the house itself. The layout was nearly identical. The only real difference was size; the house Hyunseong’s family would live in was slightly larger than Seolhee’s.
“Hyunseong, it’s all wonderful, but the house is too big.”
Mother voiced the same concern.
“Isn’t bigger better?”
“It’ll be hard to maintain.”
“Ah…”
Hyunseong finally understood the issue and turned to Seolhee.
“How do you manage your place?”
“When I’m at the guild, I hire cleaners. But won’t your mother be home while you two are out working?”
“That’s true. Would that be all right with you, Mother?”
Money was no object when it came to hiring help. The important thing was whether Mother would be comfortable.
“Well… I’m not used to it, and having strangers coming and going feels a bit…”
Hyunseong and Hyeonji had no problem with it, but if Mother was uncomfortable, the idea was off the table.
“Then we have no choice. An apartment might suit you better after all.”
Seolhee seemed ready to write this house off, but something Mother had said stuck with Hyunseong.
She thinks it’s dangerous to have strangers around.
If that was the case, he had an idea.
“Mom, what if it was someone we could trust?”
“That would be fine, but where would we find someone like that?”
“I’ll look into it.”
They left the matter there for now. But Hyunseong already had someone in mind.
After promising Seolhee they would buy the new house, Hyunseong returned with her to her residence. Hyeonji and Mother decided to spend the night at the new place and stayed behind. Fortunately, since it was already furnished, the bedding was there and the electricity and heating worked.
The reason Hyunseong had come back alone was simple.
“So, any progress?”
At his question, Seolhee shook her head.
“Why the hell did Taehyun become a Rogue?”
“I don’t know. Back when we both reached A-rank, he was shouting about starting a guild together and making it big.”
“And then he just changed overnight with no warning?”
“Yeah. There wasn’t any sign or trigger. It was just like that day ten years ago.”
With those words, Seolhee stood up.
“Do you drink?”
“I told you before, we’re thirty. It’s not that I can’t drink; there just hasn’t been a reason to.”
He hadn’t drunk since returning from the other world, but alcohol had been a lifelong companion. Whether happy, struggling, or simply existing, there had always been drink. The dwarves’ beer had been unforgettable. There was even a time he had drowned himself in it for ten years straight just to see what would happen. Of course, with his superhuman mental strength, Hyunseong could dispel intoxication with a little focus, but that pleasant buzz was one of the few emotions that let him truly connect with the world.
“Fair enough.”
Seolhee nodded in agreement and pulled out an appropriate bottle of wine from the liquor cabinet that had caught his eye earlier.
“Any snacks?”
“Anything’s fine.”
She took that as permission to do as she pleased and brought out several different kinds of cheese she had hidden around the house.
The wine was poured into their glasses. Though it didn’t quite match the atmosphere, they clinked glasses in a toast to their friendship.
They sipped the wine, paired it with cheese to deepen the flavor, and only after the alcohol had lifted their moods did they resume the conversation.
“He used to be treated like a hero of South Korea, just like me, after awakening during the Great Cataclysm. Then one day he killed all the hunters in a dungeon and disappeared.”
“So he was already strong enough to overpower other hunters by then.”
“He was stronger than me. I ran into him once after that, and I couldn’t do anything to him.”
“Was it because you lacked skill? Or because he was your friend?”
When Hyunseong asked, Seolhee bristled.
“You think I’d let a criminal go just because of old friendship?”
“Good. Next time you meet him, make sure you catch him.”
“I will. The problem is we have no idea where he is.”
Seolhee’s face was flushed; the alcohol was clearly hitting her. As Hyunseong listened, something occurred to him.
“By the way, the Rogues have been quiet lately. Any idea why?”
“Maybe because the Association declared they’d hunt them all down? It’s strange they haven’t come after me even though I helped you…”
“What if that’s not the reason?”
“Huh?”
Seolhee looked at him as if she didn’t understand.
“It’s just a thought. If they’re the kind of fanatics who don’t care about taking lives, you’d think they’d commit terrorism even if it meant getting caught. But they haven’t.”
“That’s true. Especially compared to other countries, our Rogues have rarely caused serial incidents…”
As the person in charge of Rogue affairs, Seolhee knew the situation well.
“They must have some goal… They’re probably hiding somewhere, gathering strength…”
“What the—? You’re passing out after just two glasses of wine?”
“Mmmph.”
“If you can’t hold your liquor, why suggest drinking?”
Hyunseong roughly picked Seolhee up and tossed her onto the bed in her bedroom. Meanwhile, perfectly sober, he returned to his seat and fell into thought.
Was that person watching me in the field a Rogue too?
He had let it slide because they hadn’t interfered directly. Without seeing them in person, he couldn’t make a hasty judgment. If it was one, he would deal with it. If not, then it didn’t matter.
If they show up, I’ll just crush them.
That was Hyunseong’s conclusion.
If one were to name the most dangerous area in Hongcheon Field, it would undoubtedly be Odesan. Not only was the mountain tall, it was also vast, providing an ideal habitat for monsters. Some monsters even altered the ecosystem itself, turning the environment into something resembling a dungeon. As a result, Odesan had become a dungeon in its own right. It teemed with monsters, including many powerful ones.
At the very peak of that mountain, a monster roared as if it owned the entire range.
KUWOAAAAAR!
The creature spewed magma across the area, transforming Odesan into a living volcano. Its name was Lava Dragon. Though called a dragon, it was not a true dragon but a subspecies. It had been the boss monster of the A-rank dungeon Scorching Earth that once existed in the Odesan field.
Hisss! Boom!
Someone was fearlessly charging at the monster, a figure that scattered blood even redder than magma and detonated it in midair.
KUOOORNG!
Thanks to the attack, chunks of the Lava Dragon’s flesh were torn away, but because that flesh was made of magma, it only served to enrage the beast further. Still, the man did not relent. He created swords of blood in the air and fired them relentlessly.
“Just die already.”
Shuk-shuk-shuk-shuk!
As if tired of toying with its opponent, the Lava Dragon continued its assault until the blood swords finally stopped, only after the creature’s magma had hardened like stone.
“How boring. I need something stronger.”
He was Kwak Taehyun, the S-rank Rogue designated by the Association as the Vampire and an old friend of Min Seolhee.
And then—
Boing. Boing. Boing.
After the battle ended, a massive bear made entirely of water approached with rather squelchy footsteps.
“Ahjussi! It’s way too hot here; my makeup’s going to melt! Let’s get out of here already!”
The girl shook the bear doll while sweating profusely.
“If you’re hot, I told you to go down first.”
“Then you’ll just complain about your anemia acting up again! Get on already!”
“If Yuri says so, then I suppose I must.”
Kwak Taehyun quickly climbed onto the water bear.
“Ahh, that’s refreshing.”
“Ugh, you really are such an ahjussi.”
The woman with blue-and-red pigtails was Ma Yuri. The Association had designated her an A-rank Rogue known as the Bear Queen.
“You heartless little brat. Calling a thirty-year-old man ‘ahjussi.’”
“Well, you are an ahjussi. Anyway, Minhyeok ahjussi is looking for you, Taehyun ahjussi.”
“What? Why?”
“I don’t know. He wouldn’t tell me.”
Boing. Boing. Boing.
And so the group rode down the mountain atop the water bear Ma Yuri had created.