Chapter 33: The Scout Offer
"Get off work."
The store manager's indifferent words sounded like a stay of execution today.
I took off my convenience store vest with trembling hands and hung it on the rack.
Outside the glass window, dozens of people were still camped out.
And in the middle of that crowd stood a woman emanating a chilling aura that overwhelmed everyone around her.
S-class hunter Baek Sihyun, the top of the First District, was waiting for me outside.
Why is she waiting for me out there? Did I ring up her stuff too slowly earlier and piss her off?
All sorts of random thoughts raced through my head, but I couldn't hide in the cramped store forever.
Even the back door was blocked by stacks of boxes. I swallowed dryly and forced my feet to move.
Ding-a-ling.
The moment I pushed open the convenience store's glass door and stepped out, the murmuring crowd parted like the Red Sea.
No one dared approach within Baek Sihyun's radius. Keeping my head bowed, I eyed her like a herbivore facing a massive predator.
"Done?"
Her dry voice sliced through the night air.
It wasn't loud, but the weight of it hitting my ears felt unnaturally heavy.
"Y-yes, ma'am."
"Follow me. This isn't a conversation for a crowded place."
Without waiting for my reply, Baek Sihyun turned and started walking.
I trailed after her like a cow being led to the slaughter, my legs heavy.
We arrived at a narrow, dark alley behind the convenience store building, deserted and dim. Even the streetlight barely reached it—a damp, chilly spot.
The musty stench of garbage and cold cement stung my nose. Baek Sihyun stopped and whipped around.
I instinctively hunched my shoulders and stumbled back two steps.
The wet sensation under my toes felt vividly clear. As she drew closer, the convenience store's fridge hum and fluorescent buzz faded, leaving only the pounding of my heart.
I kept my head down to avoid her gaze, but that only made the back of my neck prickle more. Just her standing there made the whole narrow alley feel like it was closing in on my throat.
My mouth was so dry that even swallowing felt loud and annoying. I tried counting breaths to act normal, but I couldn't even hit ten without gasping.
Her footsteps weren't loud, yet they sounded like a hammer approaching from afar. Every step she took made my feet reflexively slide back.
And I have to accept a guild offer looking like this? Pathetic.
"Straight to the point."
Her icy eyes pierced me head-on.
"Join our guild. We'll meet any conditions you want."
Scout.
That damn word I'd heard over the phone days ago now came straight from an S-class hunter's mouth.
Her tone was serene as a lake, but the pressure in it choked my breath.
"Contract bonus, profit share, independent operation rights—all blank checks. If you want, we can even hand over some major decision-making authority."
I swallowed dryly.
A metallic tang filled my mouth.
Any conditions I want?
Blank check? Normally, I'd bow my head immediately.
But right now, a hundred thousand eyes were crushing the alley. It wasn't the money—it was stepping into those gazes that terrified me.
The moment I joined a guild, I'd be on the same side as those monster S-class hunters. Just thinking about it suffocated me.
"Um."
My lips were so parched my voice cracked like rusty metal.
"S-sorry, but... I can't."
"Reason?"
"No, I really am F-class. My magic power's only 12. I don't even know how to fight."
I spilled my heart in a trembling voice. "I'm really just F-class."
Magic power's only 12, and I can't fight at all.
I can only carry luggage. Please just give up on me.
That was the only excuse I had. I'd just be dead weight in a guild.
Yet Baek Sihyun stared at my face without missing a beat. Her eyes were coldly sunken, but her faintly shaky breath betrayed her.
I didn't have time to feel glad about it. Instead, I just wondered, Why that expression?
It wasn't the face of someone desperate to recruit me. It looked like someone forcing themselves to reconsider something that didn't make sense.
The moment I read that, I wanted to run even faster. Unexplainable situations always led to bigger disasters.
My instincts were screaming now. If she held on longer, this wouldn't end with a refusal.
But Baek Sihyun's eyes twisted strangely at my words.
Another F-class.
Baek Sihyun muttered inwardly, Another F-class, and activated Absolute Analysis. The data on her retina was exactly as she'd seen in the store.
Magic power 12, lowest stamina, worst reaction speed. Yet her body stiffened first.
As Kang Minsu stepped back, the air in the dark, narrow alley split like a blade.
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As the chat heated up, the pressure crashed down too. The air turned sticky like a swamp, and I stifled a choked cough.
The edges of my vision blackened. Even that faint breath made the alley's air tighten more.
Adding one more sentence felt terrifying. I sensed something would snap if my voice got any louder.
A faint sweat scent rose from where Baek Sihyun stood. It was weird that it smelled human.
I realized then, for the first time, that even someone like her could get tense.
But Baek Sihyun in front of me looked far stranger than I did.
Sweat beaded on her always ice-cold forehead. Her fingertips trembled.
Why's she like that?
I got scared right away. She must be pissed, and if I messed up, my head might fly right here.
The short silence dragged on, chilling my spine further.
"U-um."
I opened my mouth in a crawling whisper, cautiously.
I made the most pitiful, groveling face while checking her expression.
"A-are you... mad?"
Baek Sihyun flinched and stiffened at my pathetic, scared question.
Her slightly quivering pupils turned to me.
Mad? No.
Baek Sihyun denied it immediately.
Her body was already frozen in fear. Yet Kang Minsu's words didn't sound like rejection—they sounded like an iron wall.
As if a major guild's offer was an insult to him. The analysis still pointed to F-class.
But her expression couldn't follow that conclusion.
"N-no."
I couldn't bear her frozen silence and backed up another step.
Dragging this out longer would leave no bones behind.
"I-I really have to go. Gotta sleep early for my shift tomorrow. Sorry!"
I bowed 90 degrees, nearly snapping my waist, then spun and bolted from the alley. My fleeing legs wobbled pathetically, heart thundering like it would burst.
My back prickled, fearing something might fly at me, so I ran like mad.
Baek Sihyun couldn't grab me as I fled into the darkness.
Her body locked, fingers immobile, she let out a long, shallow breath.
Her fingertips still trembled.
She stared at the convenience store's glass door for a moment. Even though Kang Minsu had fled, the "rejection" felt too neat.
Not like a scared person's escape, but like evasion to enforce a boundary. Baek Sihyun couldn't let go of that difference.
It bothered her more.
The data still said F-class. But the on-site reaction didn't fit the word "F-class."
Baek Sihyun bit her lip ever so slightly. She wasn't the type to leave the incomprehensible alone.
Today's unease would grow bigger tomorrow without a conclusion.
She finally lifted her head toward the convenience store.
She'd retreated today, but it wasn't over.
One more look, and she could confirm if that F-class fear was real or something else.
The numbers stuck firmly in the F-class slot. But her body insisted she'd just faced death.
A strange heat flickered in Baek Sihyun's eyes. The more she analyzed, the less she understood.
"The data."
She muttered to the empty night air.
"Doesn't add up."