39
Hong Yeon-ha was born with everything from the moment she took her first breath.
A wealthy and harmonious family.
A grandfather who, defying his age, consistently ranked within the top five most influential hunters in Korea—someone even the president couldn't treat carelessly.
Talent and striking looks inherited from her parents.
She was born with everything others would wish to have even one of.
Because of that, Hong Yeon-ha had never experienced fear even once in her life from birth until now. Until just a moment ago, that is.
Experiencing the primal fear of death for the first time in her life, Hong Yeon-ha, far from falling into panic, instead transformed all that fear into rage directed at the object that had brought her such shame, thanks to her innate temperament.
'Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill……!!'
With her eyes completely rolled back from extreme rage, Hong Yeon-ha chanted her spell, drawing together all her remaining magical power without any consideration for the aftermath.
'Damn you, you green lump of a bastard!!'
Just as she was about to begin her incantation, filled with intense killing intent to burn everything to ash without leaving even bone dust, let alone leather, the Goblin Warrior and Baek Woo-jin clashed.
'Hold on, just hold on!!'
As she shot that not-quite-cheer inward, the Goblin Warrior's massive greatsword slashed down to split Baek Woo-jin's skull.
However, the creature failed to achieve its purpose.
The greatsword aimed at his crown glanced off along the shaft of Baek Woo-jin's spear and slid away, smashing into the innocent floor instead. And just like Jang Hye-na had, the creature had to pay the price.
Baek Woo-jin, who had easily deflected the attack, swung the shaft he had held at an angle in a diagonal sweep.
The flowing, naturally connected sequence was so clean that even Hong Yeon-ha, whose reason was half-gone from rage, momentarily admired it. But the real spectacle was what happened after.
Thud.
The upper body of the Goblin Warrior, which hadn't yet managed to pull out the greatsword embedded in the floor, fell powerlessly to the ground.
"……?"
Hong Yeon-ha doubted her eyes for a moment.
The upper and lower halves of the Goblin Warrior, which had been radiating red light as if about to swing its greatsword at any moment, were separated from each other.
Thump!
As if unaware of what had happened, the lower half of the warrior that had been standing straight fell backward following the upper half that had fallen first after being cut diagonally.
"Hah?"
They say when a person is placed in an utterly absurd situation, they can't think properly. This must be exactly that moment.
Bones harder than most metals.
Dense muscles.
Skin protected by mana manipulation despite being a goblin.
Assuming no special skills were involved, it would require at least mid-C-rank strength to achieve—yet the man who came to take the promotion exam alongside her had accomplished it.
It was merely a single strike.
Her eyes had rolled back from rage, but paradoxically, that was precisely why she was observing more carefully. And unless there was something wrong with the eyes that had been fixed on the target so as not to lose it, when that massive halberd sliced through the creature, there was definitely no mana surrounding it.
In other words, with a weapon not reinforced by mana, he had simply and ordinarily bisected the boss's body.
'I need to catch him.'
She had heard he was around her age.
In other words, it meant he had awakened this year just like her and was here in this place together.
The moment she recognized that fact, the boiling rage subsided, and the reason that had briefly gone somewhere returned to its proper place.
"Are you alright?"
Hong Yeon-ha, who had been watching Baek Woo-jin approaching her while asking after her well-being, let out a small breath and spoke.
"Casual speech or honorifics. Which is more comfortable for you?"
"Either is fine."
"I'm sorry about earlier."
Abandoned by reason?
It might sound presumptuous, but she had never even imagined such a situation.
But it wasn't a normal situation—it was a life-or-death situation, and the moment she saw him prioritizing another woman over herself, something snapped in her head.
"Given the circumstances, I fully understand."
"Than—"
Hong Yeon-ha had to cut off her words before she could even finish that short sentence.
"Aaaaagh!"
The reason was that Baek Woo-jin, who had been having a normal conversation, suddenly swung his halberd widely, and from behind him where no one had been, the woman who had tried to protect her but was struck by the warrior's fist and rolled out of sight appeared, screaming with both her hands severed.
**
Baek Woo-jin, who lightly shook off the blood on his halberd, struck the back of the thief woman's knees with the shaft of his spear as she screamed and stared with disbelieving eyes at her severed hands.
Unable to properly kneel due to the shock of having both hands severed, the thief woman lost her balance and toppled face-first to the floor.
'Even considering the limited range, this is too much of a scam, isn't it?'
The thief woman's stealth was perfect. In fact, he hadn't noticed it at all until she entered the range of his expanded senses.
But much to her regret, the effect of the leaf obtained from defeating the Elder Tree was excellent enough to render her stealth skill meaningless.
"I'm sorry, but I'd like to hear an explanation."
"I was planning to do that anyway."
Since the other person had dropped honorifics, he considered doing the same, but there were still things he needed to get from Hong Yeon-ha, and to maintain an appropriate distance, he decided to keep his current stance.
"That woman. It seemed like she was targeting you from the start."
"Me?"
"Yes."
"Then why did she come out from behind you instead of coming for me?"
"A mage who's still chanting and even in stealth? Killing her would be easier than twisting a child's wrist, wouldn't it?"
"Hah."
Her reaction seemed somewhat dissatisfied with the answer, but seeing as she didn't add anything else, it appeared she couldn't easily deny that fact either.
"Then you're saying you knew that bitch was suspicious from the start?"
"I noticed from the second stage exam, at least."
"How?"
"Before that, just a moment."
Baek Woo-jin took out the remaining recovery potion and crouched in front of the thief woman who was half-dead from pain and blood loss.
Sizzle.
When he sprayed the potion on the cut surface of her severed hands, the bleeding stopped along with whitish smoke, and Baek Woo-jin poured the remaining potion into the thief woman's mouth while continuing to answer Hong Yeon-ha's question.
"This face is fake."
Baek Woo-jin, who casually tossed the empty bottle onto the floor, traced one cheek of the thief woman, who had barely avoided dying from shock, with the sharp blade of his halberd.
"A skin mask?"
"I have a good sense for these things."
Baek Woo-jin inserted his finger into the cut portion and tore off the mask entirely. Then, a woman's face with a completely different impression from before was revealed—a plain appearance without any distinctive features.
"What the hell kind of woman is she?"
"We should figure that out now. So, that big guy is dead too. When do we get kicked out of here?"
"Unless a separate exit appears, the entrance we came through is the exit."
"Then you're saying we can stay here until we open that door and leave?"
"That's right."
"In that case……."
Baek Woo-jin picked up the thief woman's severed hands from the floor and returned to her front, slapping her cheek hard to wake her up—she had fainted in that brief moment.
"Gasp!"
Fortunately, the thief woman came to her senses before her lips burst completely.
"Mmph!!"
Since he absolutely hated noisy things, the first measure Baek Woo-jin took against the now-conscious thief woman was to clamp his free hand over her mouth.
"Here are your severed hands. As you can see, they were cut very cleanly. So if you find skilled people, it'll cost a lot of money, but you can have them reattached."
Of course, in this case, since the cross-sections of the wrists had been cauterized with potion, even if they were reattached, working as a Hunter would be impossible.
"If you only answer my questions, I'll have you sent to a criminal detention center, but I'll take you out alive and even help you get your hands reattached. If you understand, move your pupils up and down."
"……."
The thief woman moved her unsteadily wavering pupils up and down once, and Baek Woo-jin slowly removed the hand that had been covering her mouth.
"The reason you approached us?"
"To kill Hong Yeon-ha……"
"Why?"
"E-Entrance… test."
Entrance?
He had thought it was definitely a grudge relationship, but a completely unexpected answer popped out.
"More details."
"That's, that, that's all!!"
Unfortunately, he didn't possess the ability to clearly distinguish whether it was the truth or not. Therefore, he placed one of the retrieved severed hands on the floor and put his foot on top of it.
"D-Don't!! Really! I really don't know!! It's just! That, my growth stagnated and the guy I was even engaged to cheat on me with another woman from the guild, so I was drinking alone, and they approached me first!!"
"Continue."
When he removed his foot from the back of her hand, the thief woman let out what seemed like a sigh of relief and continued speaking.
"They said they'd normalize this unreasonable world together……. Hah, they said if I joined them, they'd give me skills and increase my stats……."
"Are you an idiot?"
"No! That's not true!! Y-You saw my stealth skill, right?! They gave me that!"
Baek Woo-jin flicked his chin as if telling her to keep talking.
"They said killing three people with those dropped daggers was the entrance condition. And if I joined, they'd share even stronger power……."
"Wait. Then you weren't targeting me from the start?"
"……."
At Hong Yeon-ha's question, the thief woman closed her mouth.
"Anyway, you wanted power so you planned murder. But you don't know anything about that organization?"
"T-That's right."
Whether that statement was true or not wasn't actually that important.
Finding out the truth wasn't his job.
"Is there anything else you're curious about?"
"No."
It seemed Hong Yeon-ha had also judged that getting anything substantial from her was hopeless.
"Then let's head out slowly."
Baek Woo-jin placed the thief woman's hands in front of her and stood up. Then, with the tip of his halberd, he precisely pierced the area around the thief woman's heart.
"You……?"
As if she hadn't expected him to kill her, Hong Yeon-ha couldn't hide her bewilderment.
"As far as I can tell, she's already killed two people. Furthermore, just taking her out alive means getting entangled with some unknown organization for certain. I don't know what you think with your backing, but I'd rather not get involved in such troublesome matters."
As Baek Woo-jin looked at her while shaking off the blood on the tip of his halberd, Hong Yeon-ha soon closed and opened her eyes once before nodding.
"I was just surprised."
"I understand."
Anyone would be flustered if someone said they'd spare them only to suddenly stab their heart.
"Hey."
Baek Woo-jin, who had just finished putting the still-blissfully unconscious Jang Hye-na on his back, raised his head.
"It's fine if I take these daggers, right?"
"That much is fine."
Given the circumstances, it was almost certain that something was enchanted on the daggers.
The reason she permitted it despite knowing that was because at the point where the thief woman died, no one besides herself and Hong Yeon-ha could know at which stage she had died.
"Then let's go out now."
"Wait."
As he was about to open the door, Hong Yeon-ha stopped him.
When Baek Woo-jin turned his head slightly to look at her, Hong Yeon-ha looked at him with her characteristic bright red pupils and spoke.
"The talk about the bounty—you said that expecting things to turn out like this, right?"
"I won't deny it."
"Good. When you leave the tower, make sure to come find me. Understand?"
Even if she had told him not to come, he would have sought her out, but since she directly told him to come find her, there was no reason for him to refuse.
"Then I'll come find you tomorrow or the day after."