Studying the Hunter Life
Going out and meeting people regularly definitely made me feel like I was actually living. When I was just cooped up at home, I had absolutely nothing to do but watch TV. Even that got boring, so I ended up pleasuring myself... It was a truly tedious existence. Now, it felt like my life had changed. And as I started living like a normal human being, my sister's expression seemed to brighten up a bit too.
"Did something good happen?" I asked.
"Huh? Why?"
"Well..." I trailed off. "You look happy."
"Ah, today is payday."
Do hunters get monthly salaries too...? When I asked her about it, she explained that while it depended on the guild, hunters affiliated with a guild usually received a guaranteed base salary. Of course, the base salary wasn't that high—the allowances were the main part—but at the end of the month, their activities were calculated and paid out like a salary. Apparently, it made tax accounting easier.
"Ah... and here I thought you got yourself a boyfriend," I teased.
My sister shot me an exasperated look. "What about you, Sis? You said you've been getting close to people lately. Did you find a guy there?"
I almost lost my composure and went stiff at her words. But then I realized why she was teasing me back.
"Sorry..." Since I was the one who started it, I had no right to complain.
"Anyway, it's because the money cleared." Curious about how much she made, I asked her to show me. With a knowing smirk, my sister pulled up her bank account, and I took a look.
"Wh-what...?"
Didn't she say this was for a single month? The figure on the pay stub she showed me was... over eight digits long. And the first digit wasn't a one or a two, but an eight...
"E-eighty million won?!"
My sister wasn't kidding when she said she had plenty of money. This was a single month's salary?
"My allowances were a bit high this month."
"I-is that so?"
"Yeah. Usually, it's about half of this."
I honestly had no idea what caliber of hunter my sister actually was.
"Um, Seohui?"
"Why, are you shocked?"
Seeing my sister look so smug made me feel a bit intimidated. Ten years ago, when I was working a regular job, my monthly salary was around 1.2 million won, wasn't it? Even back then, that wasn't a small amount. Just how much had inflation changed things in ten years? Even accounting for inflation... isn't this amount way too absurd?
"Y-yeah..."
There was a reason she said she had money to burn. The amount we spent on clothes at the department store the other day really was just pocket change to her.
"Um, Seohui, where do you stand among hunters?"
"You're only getting curious about that now?"
I had heard bits and pieces about Seohui's work. But I couldn't gauge her actual standing from just that. Even though I'd heard about the hunter industry while attending the academy, I couldn't connect the dots.
"You know that Korean hunters are ranked from E-class up to the highest, S-class, right?"
I had learned that at the academy. At the time, they didn't explain the specific criteria for the ranks in detail, so I had just let it go in one ear and out the other. I figured a ranking system with unknown criteria couldn't be that important anyway.
"Out of those, I'm an A-class hunter."
A-class... I knew it was the second highest, but I didn't quite grasp just how high that actually was.
"I don't really know how high that is..."
"Well, it's not divided by exact numerical values, so it can be hard to grasp."
According to my sister, it was a position given to those with decent achievements and skill... but apparently, it was far from easy to reach.
"These days, unless you have insane talent, B-class is pretty much the limit."
To be precise, because achievements were heavily weighed, it was almost impossible to climb to A-class. Since the existing A-class hunters weren't retiring, there simply weren't any openings...
Come to think of it... it had only been ten years since the Gates first appeared. Unless they awakened in their forties or fifties, everyone was still in their prime. The oldest first-generation hunters were only in their fifties, with the majority being in their thirties and forties. They were nowhere near retirement age. Naturally, compared to the achievements of the first generation, latecomers fell catastrophically short. But more importantly, if my sister was an A-class...
"How strong is an S-class?"
"S-classes are literal monsters... Even ten of me couldn't beat one."
By the way, the way she spoke made it sound like she had actually met and fought alongside or against an S-class.
"Have you met an S-class?"
Since she was an A-class and had been active since the early days, it wouldn't be surprising if she had.
"Huh? Sis, you didn't know?"
"Know what?"
"The leader of my guild, the Murim Alliance, is an S-class."
Uh... what?
"What?"
The Murim Alliance was the guild of South Korea's strongest hunter, wasn't it? Even in terms of guild rankings, they were at the absolute top...
"You really didn't know?"
"No, you never told me the name of your guild."
"Oh, did I not?" My sister looked sheepish.
"Anyway, 'Murim Alliance'...? What a weird name."
"Well, it's because... what do you call them? Wuxia novels? A bunch of middle-aged guys who love those books founded it."
Apparently, that was how the guild started. A group modeled after the organizations in wuxia novels, which revere martial arts, righteousness, and chivalry—basically, a group with a strong sense of justice.
Back then, men in their twenties and thirties who loved wuxia novels decided to use their newly awakened powers to enact justice. At first, the Alliance Leader and a few of his friends gathered to form it, and as like-minded people joined one by one... it eventually grew into a full-fledged guild.
"I-is that so?"
I used to read books ten years ago, but I never touched wuxia or fantasy novels. A guild made of wuxia geeks...
"Is it really okay for you to be in a guild like that?"
"Well, that was in the past. Now, it's basically a corporate guild."
Apparently, it started as a social club. But many people found romance in their righteous actions and wanted to join them. Because of that, the Murim Alliance once rose to the number one spot among South Korean guilds... and the biggest reason for that was, of course, the overwhelming power of their Alliance Leader, the S-class guildmaster.
"I suppose so."
"Well, our Alliance Leader Oppa is still the same as ever."
The guildmaster who firmly held the title of South Korea's number one hunter. And one of the ironclad rules he established for the guild was never to refuse the government's requests for support. Because of that, the guild's actual power had declined quite a bit, but its reputation was higher than any other guild.
"Y-you call him Oppa?"
"Yeah. He's in his late thirties, so he's basically an old man, but still."
Back then, he was in his late twenties, a young and dashing older brother figure, or so she said. Even considering that, they had an age gap of over twelve years... isn't calling him "Oppa" a bit much?
"Still, calling him Oppa is a bit..."
"Sis, do you know how old you would be right now if you hadn't been summoned to the other world?"
"Huh?"
Why was she suddenly asking that...? Before I was summoned, I was... twenty-seven. That's why I set Nix Hemera's current age to twenty-seven as well. Wait, if ten years had passed since then...?
"Uh?"
"Do you get it now? You'd be the same age as him."
I stared blankly at my sister. No way...
"It's a bit embarrassing, but I relied on him a lot."
Back then, as a middle schooler, my sister had ventured into the Gates to make money as soon as she got her status window. People around her tried to stop her from working as a hunter at such a young age, but she had her reasons. The one who heard her story and took her in was the man leading the party called the "Murim Alliance" at the time.
According to my sister, after hearing about her pitiful circumstances, he brought her along with him. In the process, he trained her and showed her immense kindness, even giving her a share of his own earnings. Naturally, she came to rely on him and followed him when he eventually established the guild.
"He sounds like a good person..."
He was the one who had played the role of an older brother during the years I was gone.
"I'd like to meet him sometime and thank him."
"Actually, the Alliance Leader already said he wanted to thank you, Sis."
Huh? What did that mean...?
"Remember the people I brought over for you to heal last time? They're all from our guild."
I figured as much... Those two held key positions in the guild, so their recovery was a massive help to the Alliance. That was why he was grateful...
"Hmph..."
"Wh-what..." My sister shrank back slightly at my reaction.
"Nothing. I'm just glad I could be of help."
I was just a little jealous. The fact that my sister had relied on someone else, someone who wasn't me, during my absence... made me envious. And I was angry at myself for not being there to help her. If only I had returned sooner... No, if only that ten-year gap didn't exist... *Tsk.*
"Anyway, I think this is the first time I'm hearing about your guild in detail."
"Is it...?" For some reason, my sister looked a bit hesitant. "Um, by any chance, Sis, have you found a party yet?"
"A party?"
"Yeah, you know."
The reason people paid money to attend the otherwise useless academy... was to find companions to team up with or to get recruited by a guild. You either got scouted by a guild by proving your abilities with top grades, or you gathered decent, like-minded classmates to form your own party.
"Not really...? Besides, I can fight on my own anyway."
I lightly caressed the bracelet-form All Master on my wrist. I didn't know if I'd ever have to use it, but... I was far from a simple healer.
"Um, your power has a self-healing ability, right?"
"Yeah, I recover even if I just stand still."
That was the very reason I, a Saintess, was able to stand on the front lines of the battlefield.
"I see..."
In any case, my sister was clearly hiding something.
"By the way, is there something you want to say?"
"Would you... be interested in joining our guild?"
Was this... a scout offer?
"So suddenly...?"
"No, well..." My sister hesitated. "Actually, I wasn't planning on scouting you, but..."
She had brought up the guild in a joking manner before. But unlike then, she was serious now. Apparently, the Murim Alliance currently lacked any decent healers. Other top-ranking guilds were monopolizing the skilled healers, to the point where they even refused to treat injured members of the Murim Alliance... Having seen someone who couldn't get healed and had to undergo surgery last time, I understood immediately. What a dirty, underhanded way to keep rivals in check...
"I didn't think of it at first either..." Seohui explained that when the two healed members returned, my name came up in the guild, and someone suggested scouting such a skilled individual. It was the perfect chance to patch up the Murim Alliance's sole weakness... "And they told me, since I'm your sister, to try and recruit you."
I stared quietly at my sister. Was it really okay for me to join a guild? Honestly, I didn't have a good personality. Right now, I was holding back... and I was stable... but once I stood on a battlefield, things would change. Back when I lived on Earth as a man, I wasn't like this. But after being summoned to another world and rolling through battlefields for ten years, experiencing all sorts of things, I had grown rough. It wasn't just a matter of being rough; I had changed to the point where it was a serious psychological issue. In fact, this personality of mine... had only improved because of my sister.
"I don't know..."
My sister's proposal was, in a way, an opportunity. If I joined the guild? I could escape my current lifestyle, make money, and live a comfortable life. But... was it right for me to go? I had my doubts. While it was nice to have my abilities recognized... it felt a bit strange, like I was getting in through nepotism.
"Should we put it on hold for now?"
"Yeah..."
I wanted to try working alone first.
"I'll work on my own for the time being." Even though I was still attending the academy...
"Alright."
My sister didn't look disappointed at all. In fact, she looked almost relieved...?
"Would there be a problem if I joined?"
"It's not that, but..." Apparently, there were so many old bachelors in the guild that they said it would cause an absolute uproar if I joined.
I stared intently at my sister.
"I'm saying this because I'm genuinely worried."
"I know."
But I was afraid that what my sister was worried about would actually happen. Having such an incredibly beautiful appearance really was a hassle... On Earth, I seemed to experience things far too often that I had never had to deal with in the other world, thanks to my status as a Saintess.