After that day, Siu spent every waking moment busy.
Every morning, he dressed neatly in a suit and made the rounds of every guild in Seoul.
In his hand, he always carried Lee Jia’s profile.
[Name: Lee Jia / Rank: F (Non-combat Support)]
It was the sort of profile anyone would send straight to the trash, but Han Siu always wore a confident smile as he presented it to the guild representative.
“Good day! I’m Han Siu, CEO of Miracle Management. This is a promising Hunter under our agency. Please take a look at her profile.”
They said no one spat in a smiling face, but the Hunter industry was an exception.
The guild scouting managers would glance at the profile, then almost invariably frown.
“…F-rank? And support at that? Are you joking?”
“Look, I’m busy enough as it is. Why would you bring me something like this? Get out.”
“Miracle? Never heard of it.”
Every guild turned him away at the door.
One manager even crumpled up Siu’s business card in front of him and tossed it into the trash.
He was rejected and chased out dozens of times a day.
His legs swelled so badly his shoes barely fit, and his throat grew hoarse to the point of splitting.
His mouth was so dry he could hardly speak without water.
Even so, Siu never stopped.
This entire process carried two meanings.
To Lee Jia, it was a silent message that Siu had absolutely not given up on her. And in another sense, it was work to make it clear that every guild in Korea had rejected her.
In the end, it was a process of imprinting on her the fact that, in this cold world, the only one who stood on Lee Jia’s side was Siu.
Even late at night, dragging his exhausted body home, Siu would always call or message Lee Jia.
[I had a meeting with the Taeyang Guild today. The manager seemed interested. If we refine things a little more, I think we’ll get good results.]
[Miss Jia, you’re keeping up with your mana control training, right? Don’t overdo it. Your health comes first.]
[Tomorrow, I’m meeting someone from Daeseong Guild. We had a positive discussion, so let’s keep our spirits up!]
They were all blatant lies.
At Taeyang Guild, he had been stopped at the entrance, and the Daeseong Guild manager had treated him like a peddler. But it didn’t matter.
He had to tell even these white lies so that Jia, standing at the edge of a cliff, could endure.
Two weeks passed like that.
The office door opened cautiously, and someone came in.
It was Lee Jia.
She was still wearing a shabby gray tracksuit, and her face was far more gaunt than it had been two weeks ago.
Her eyes were sunken, and her lips were chapped.
“Huh? Miss Jia. What brings you here without calling?”
Siu greeted her with surprise and warmth, but she did not sit down. She stood by the door with her head lowered.
Her shoulders were trembling faintly.
“Sir… Please stop now.”
“What do you mean, stop? How could I stop? We’re only getting started.”
“I know everything you’re going through because of me. I heard the rumors. They say other guilds chase you out, tear up your business cards, and all that…”
Lee Jia’s voice was wet with tears and trembling badly.
She already knew the gap between the hopeful messages Siu sent her and reality.
“Please don’t lie anymore because of me. Please.”
She lifted her head.
She looked at Siu with eyes brimming with tears.
“You’re getting rejected by every guild. Who would accept trash like me…? You’re the only one suffering because of me… I heard you invested in me using your severance pay and even taking on debt. I’ll… somehow handle the penalty fee, so the contract should now…”
At last, the tears she had been holding back burst free.
Drops of tears fell and wet the floor.
“Please terminate my contract. Please. Stop before you’re ruined even more. I’ll repay the penalty somehow, even if I have to work my whole life, even if I have to do manual labor. So please, abandon me.”
She pleaded with Siu.
She could no longer bear to watch him collapse because of her.
She hated her own incompetence down to the bone.
Siu rose from his seat, approached her, and firmly held her shoulders.
“Lee Jia.”
“…Hic, yes.”
“Look at me. Look me straight in the eyes.”
Siu spoke in a low, warm, yet powerful voice.
Jia looked up at him with tear-soaked eyes.
“I told you, didn’t I? My eyes are never wrong. I’ve seen countless Hunters over the past ten years.”
“But… the reality is that I’m F-rank. No one will accept me.”
“Don’t worry. It simply wasn’t your time yet. Just as every flower blooms in its own season, your time will only come a little later. I will never give up. No matter what others say, even if the whole world points fingers and laughs, I believe in you, Miss Jia. So please, just trust me—trust my judgment—one more time.”
Siu gazed deep into her eyes and showed her his kindest smile.
“So don’t say such weak things. Go home and rest properly. Don’t ever bring up terminating the contract again.”
“Sir…”
“Eat plenty of good food, sleep well, and train hard. Later, when you succeed, buy me something very expensive. I’m going to get my money’s worth.”
Lee Jia lowered her head and shed tears as large as raindrops.
They were no longer tears of despair and guilt.
Siu had believed in her until the end and refused to let go of her hand, even as she struggled in despair as deep and dark as the abyss.
That steadfast faith melted her frozen heart.
“I’ll work hard.”
She wiped her tears and raised her head.
“Yes. That’s it.”
“I will never, ever disappoint you, sir. I’ll succeed for sure and let you live in comfort.”
She clenched her fist tightly.
The look in her eyes had changed.
In the eyes that had once been soaked in defeat, venom and hope now settled together.
Seeing the change in her gaze, Siu also clenched his fist.
‘Good. This is it.’
She could not fall into despair.
Reawakening was a change in the body, but in the end, the vessel that accepted that tremendous power was the mind.
There had already been occasional reports overseas of people who, without steadying their mentality beforehand, failed to withstand the sudden shock of reawakening, went berserk, and destroyed themselves.
Siu had to become the strongest support pillar possible so she would not collapse.
“Now, go home and rest well. You must not be swayed by the noise of the world. Because you are special, Miss Jia.”
**
Another sixteen days passed.
Before long, exactly one month had passed since Lee Jia had received her Awakening assessment.
The day of fate that Siu had appraised with his Mind’s Eye had dawned.
Siu stood by the office window, looking down at the street as he calmly drank his coffee.
The morning news was playing on the TV.
It was then.
[Breaking News] Unidentified mana explosion occurs in the middle of Gangnam! Citizens urged to evacuate immediately…
The screen changed along with the urgent voice of the anchor.
The news footage showed a street in Gangnam.
The road was split open, and roadside trees had been uprooted in the chaotic scene.
In the shaky camera angle, a woman could be seen collapsed in the middle of the road.
Around her, blue mana rose like a haze—no, like a towering pillar of fire.
“Finally.”
Only Siu knew that an incident would occur on this day.
Without getting excited, he calmly took a sip of coffee and turned off the TV. What was meant to come had come.
A moment later, his phone rang loudly.
The caller was Lee Jia.
“Hello?”
[S-Sir…]
Jia’s voice coming from the other end of the phone was thin and trembling with fear.
Her breathing was rough.
“Miss Jia?”
[I… I feel strange. My body… it’s hot. It feels like I’m going to burst. I was just walking down the street, and suddenly… power…]
“Calm down, Miss Jia. It’s all right. Where are you right now?”
[The hospital. I’m in the emergency room at the nearby St. Mary’s Hospital… The Association people… They say I have to go to the Association right away… I’m scared, sir…]
“I’ll go to the Association right now. Don’t worry about anything and wait just a little. I’m coming.”
As soon as Siu hung up, he grabbed his jacket and rushed out of the office.
All the way to the Association by taxi, his hands were drenched in sweat.
His heart felt as if it would burst, but he tried to keep his head cold.
When Siu arrived at the Association, the area in front of the assessment room was already a scene of utter chaos.
Reporters and individual streamers who had heard that the protagonist of the unidentified mana explosion was at the Association had formed a long line starting from the entrance.
“Excuse me! I’m her guardian! Please move!”
Siu forced his way through the crowd and entered.
The lobby was already packed with Association personnel, scouts from various guilds who had sniffed out the news and rushed over, and agents.
Among the crowd, Assistant Manager Park was also visible.
He was on the phone with someone, wearing a grave expression.
Inside the control line set up by the Association staff, Siu found Jia huddled in a corner.
She was trembling violently with an IV drip inserted into her arm.
The mana measuring devices around her were blaring warning alarms.
“Miss Jia.”
Siu called her name loudly.
She, who had buried her face in her knees, snapped her head up.
“Sir!”
Jia sprang to her feet, not caring that the IV line was being pulled loose, and rushed toward Siu.
The Association staff tried to stop her, but because of her rampaging mana, they could not approach carelessly.
She threw herself into Siu’s arms and clutched the hem of his clothes as if it were a lifeline.
“Hic, sir… I… I think I’m going to die… It suddenly exploded… Light came out of my body… I’m scared…”
Her body was as hot as a ball of fire.
The mana boiling over inside her had lost its way and was running wild.
“Miss Jia. Look at me. Calm down. You won’t die. It’s all right. It’s simply that your time has come.”
“What? My time?”
“I told you, didn’t I? Your time would simply come a little later. This is that time.”
Siu gently patted Jia’s back and reassured her.
At his calm voice, Jia’s ragged breathing slowly subsided.
“Let’s go. Let’s go and show them who the Jia they ignored truly is. Let’s show them how grave a mistake they made.”
Siu held her hand tightly.
At that firm warmth, Jia stopped trembling and nodded.
“Yes… Let’s go.”
Siu held her hand and led her into the assessment room.
The gazes of countless people pierced toward the two of them.
The Association staff thanked Siu for calming the situation and quickly prepared the assessment room.
Whirrrr!
The sound of the assessment machine starting up rang out unusually loud and grand.
It sounded like a massive engine warming up.
Everyone held their breath and stared at the display board.
It was then.
Beep! Beeeep!
The measuring device let out a sharp warning sound, as if it were screaming.
At the same time, red letters were clearly engraved on the display board.
[Lee Jia - Magic Class] [Rank: A]
The instant the letter “A” appeared on the display board, the lobby erupted as if a bomb had gone off.
“Re-Reawakening! My god!”
“And she’s A-rank? Are you kidding me?”
“From F-rank to A-rank? Does that even make sense?”
Everyone was shocked by Korea’s first case of Reawakening, and one that was a vertical leap from F-rank to A-rank at that.
Assistant Manager Park, in particular, sank to the floor on the spot with a vacant expression.
The woman he had mocked and treated like garbage was A-rank.
Even if he combined his annual salary, he would no longer be able to match what she earned in a single month.
The door to the assessment room opened, and Lee Jia walked out.
Her face was flushed.
As she looked down at her own hands, her eyes were dazed, yet filled with surging joy and disbelief.
Blue mana flickered like flames at her fingertips.
“Congratulations, Hunter Lee Jia.”
Siu smiled and extended his hand.
“S-Sir… I… really…”
“We’ll talk later. It seems things are about to get noisy.”
Just as Siu said, the scouts and agents looked ready to charge in like a swarm of zombies, their eyes blazing.
If the Association staff had not formed a human barricade, they would have been overrun long ago.
“Step back! Step back! We are initiating protective measures according to procedure!”
The Association staff forcibly held the people back in accordance with the manual for protecting reawakened individuals.
Immediately after reawakening, one’s mental state was extremely unstable, and because there was a risk of going berserk, absolute rest was essential.
“Ms. Jia, please take the Association car and go home. You need to rest well today.”
“What about you, sir? Aren’t you coming with me? I’m scared···.”
Jia clutched Siu’s sleeve and refused to let go.
“I have a few things to take care of here. Don’t worry and go ahead. I’ll contact you soon.”
Siu patted the back of her hand reassuringly.
In the end, Lee Jia left under the escort of the Association staff, her face filled with reluctance as she kept looking back.
After confirming that she had gotten out safely, Siu slipped away unnoticed and headed toward a secluded spot by the building’s emergency exit.
After making sure no one was around, he quietly murmured in a trembling voice.
“Status window.”
Ding—
[Growth Synchronization effect activated.]
[Affiliated Hunter ‘Lee Jia’ has reawakened from F-rank to A-rank.]
[Due to the target’s rapid growth, a tremendous amount of experience points will be shared.]
[The user’s rank has increased. D -> C]
[The user’s mana circuits have expanded.]
Messages poured out before his eyes.
A warm energy circulated through his entire body, and he felt a refreshing sensation, as if blocked blood vessels had been cleared.
Beyond simply making money, Siu himself was also growing stronger.
**
It was late in the evening when Siu returned to the office.
He stood by the window of the empty office and looked out at the city’s nightscape.
It was a shabby office built atop a mountain of debt worth 300 million won, but in his eyes now, it shone brighter than the headquarters of any major guild.
‘Now, Miracle Management has become the only company in Korea that possesses a reawakened A-rank Hunter.’
Holding back the emotions swelling within him, he swept his hand across the desk.
The cold sensation made the joy of victory feel real.
This was only the beginning.
Starting with Lee Jia, he would find every hidden gem in the world and shake up the entire board.
It was then.
The phone in his pocket vibrated.
Bzzzt.
The caller was Lee Jia. Siu checked the message.
[Sir. You’re not asleep, are you? I have something to tell you. Could you come to the front of my house right now···?]
[Right now?]
[Yes. There’s something I really have to tell you right now. I’ll be waiting.]
Siu stared at the message for a moment, then grabbed his jacket and put it on.
Her voice, the desperation he could feel beyond the text, was calling him.
She, now an A-rank Hunter, was calling him in the middle of the night.
A revision to the contract terms? Or had she been shaken by the persuasion of a major guild?
But Siu was not uneasy.
Because he trusted the look in her eyes.
As he cut through the night air and headed toward her house, Siu’s steps were filled with certainty.