“So, the management team has specially organized a prep class for the entrance exam and for finals, to prevent anyone from getting instantly rejected from rolling admissions. Now, applause!”
Geuru shot her hand up.
“Geuru will only be five next year!”
Seol Yejin smiled at Geuru.
“Hunter Geuru is scheduled to enroll a year early in the preschool program.”
“Oh……!”
In the United States, the optional education course before entering kindergarten was called preschool, but in Korea, since compulsory education began with elementary school, preschool programs were operated starting from age six.
With an excellent faculty, a curriculum that even allowed practical training for mana aptitude, and even bonus points for the elementary school entrance exam, applicants were lining up.
“Hunter Serhi has no school records, so we’ll have to go with a different admissions track.”
She took out a booklet and pointed out several admissions options.
“……Practical skills in handling mana are 65%, entrance exam score is 30%, and the interview is 5%.”
Since Gidan was S-rank, his practical score had been overwhelming, and he had applied and enrolled through a special admissions track.
Serhi narrowed his eyes as he looked at the tiny print Seol Yejin pointed to. His face said he had no idea what any of it meant.
Seol Yejin let out a small laugh as she watched Serhi nod with a look that made it clear he understood absolutely nothing.
“Today, we’ll just do a simple test by subject to see what your basic skills are like.”
Since she had no expectations for either Serhi or Geuru’s Korean proficiency, she handed them test papers at the lower elementary school level.
“It’s not hard. You just have to fill in the blanks.”
“Okaaay.”
It really wasn’t hard.
Geuru filled in the words and sentences to match the illustrated situations.
Meanwhile, Seol Yejin took some documents from a file and lifted her head.
“Dan-a, where are you going?”
Flinch.
Gidan, who had been quietly moving away, gave an awkward smile.
“……Huh? The bathroom?”
“You need to solve this.”
“…….”
Gidan received the expected questions for the first-year final exam.
Gidan did have excuses for the disaster of his ninth-grade score on the midterm.
Until middle school, he had been on the baseball team and had kept his distance from studying, and after that, he had been a Hunter and kept his distance from studying.
But Seol Yejin had sharply criticized him, saying that no matter how much of an S-rank Hunter he was, he couldn’t just have a tin can rattling around in his head.
“Now, sit here.”
With a gloomy expression, Gidan picked up a mechanical pencil.
Seol Yejin glanced at Gidan solving the problems, then quietly spoke to him.
“Dan-a, I attended every admissions briefing this time, and they say there are an awful lot of mana-compatible people these days. Haven’t you heard anything?”
“Huh? I don’t know.”
She muttered as she flipped through the admissions prep documents.
“They say this is the first year there have been this many applicants. So next year’s entrance exam won’t be easy.”
Hmm, Gidan poked his chin with the end of his mechanical pencil.
“I haven’t heard anything in particular. I don’t really go to school much.”
“Wow—what a thing to brag about, right?”
“……Tee-hee!”
Seol Yejin flicked Gidan on the forehead, then spoke to Serhi and Geuru.
“There being especially many applicants—what does that mean? It means all of you have to study harder. Do you understand?”
“…….”
“Okaaay!”
“Our Hunter Geuru is so friendly and cute, and she answers so well. You’ll do great in the interview too, won’t you?”
As Seol Yejin stroked Geuru, she looked at Serhi. It meant, Hurry up and answer that you’ll work hard too.
But……
“I don’t have to go to some school.”
All of a sudden, Serhi dropped a bombshell.
Gasp! Geuru inhaled sharply, and Gidan furtively checked Seol Yejin’s expression.
“More importantly, why do I have to go to school?”
Hmm. Seol Yejin leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms.
“Do you see this, Dan-a? That was exactly you one year ago.”
“Ah, Noona…… please stop digging up my dark history…….”
Gidan tucked his neck into his anorak like a turtle and muttered meekly.
It was a situation Gidan, who had feared nothing when he had first joined Hyeonak, had already gone through once.
Geuru recalled the time she had said she wouldn’t go to kindergarten and would be a Hunter instead.
Was this something everyone went through?
Geuru had also secretly wondered if she could live just fine as a Hunter without going to kindergarten. Even now, she didn’t know why she necessarily had to go.
Seol Yejin looked Serhi up and down and asked crookedly,
“Serhi, do you think you’re that great?”
“Well, if you don’t mind getting hurt, I could show you.”
Serhi maintained his uncooperative attitude in a sullen tone.
Gidan let out a sigh.
When Geuru pulled on Gidan’s hand with a worried face, Gidan smiled and stroked Geuru’s head.
“Don’t worry. No one can beat Noona Yejin.”
For some reason, his tone sounded like it came from experience.
‘Has Oppa been through it too?’
Just then, Seol Yejin nodded and asked briskly,
“Good. Then I’ll check. What you’re saying is that you can live in Korea without any help, right? Have you registered as an Awakened in Korea?”
“Ah, no.”
“No Hunter license, then. Do you even know how to write a dungeon raid report right now? There’ll be countless incidents and accidents, so have you ever written a statement of circumstances?”
“…….”
“No. Then how fluent is your Korean? If you came from overseas, a Korean proficiency test score is mandatory. Have you taken the Korean proficiency test?”
“……That.”
“You haven’t. How many people do you know in Korea? Anyone who’ll help you?”
“……Even without that—”
“So there isn’t anyone. How much do you know about Korean culture? If you have to contact an older person right away, are you going to act the way you are now?”
“…….”
“You don’t know. What about taxes? In an emergency, can you coordinate with government offices?”
“Wh…… what’s that…….”
“Mm, so you can’t.”
After pouring all that out in a stream, Seol Yejin smiled brightly.
“For kids, there are procedures and routes you absolutely have to go through in order to become a member of society. School is the institution that can provide that education in the most optimal way. Especially for underage Awakened, it can be an even better environment.”
“…….”
Serhi already looked as if his soul had left his body.
Gidan gave a bitter smile, as if he had expected as much.
Meanwhile, Geuru’s eyes sparkled.
“You understand, right? Then you’re going to work hard? Everyone, let’s give one ‘fighting’!”
“Haiting!”
“……Fighting!”
Geuru grabbed Serhi’s hand and raised it.
Seol Yejin chuckled and lightly pinched Geuru’s cheek.
*
Inside a narrow room in an old apartment.
A pallid-faced woman looked into a fishbowl. Countless goldfish of various colors were swimming freely inside.
Meanwhile, a voice message was playing from an old-fashioned telephone.
—……I have enclosed the address of Miral Orphanage, the child’s last known whereabouts.
The woman sat down in front of a mahjong table.
It had already been three years since she had come to Korea and started taking commissions.
Her outstanding information network had become known by word of mouth, and she had received countless commissions from famous people as well……
Even so, she had never expected a commission from that On Jurim to come in.
It wasn’t that she was particularly haughty, but since her field of activity was the underworld, she tended to choose her commissions carefully.
Under normal circumstances, she would have leisurely weighed whether or not to accept the commission, but the moment she realized the client was On Jurim, she accepted it.
On the table lay platinum-colored hair, a photograph of a mixed-race girl around four years old, and a note with “Han Geuru” written on it.
‘Han Geuru…….’
Chuen looked at the photograph of the smiling child, the corners of her mouth lifting slightly before her expression returned to blankness.
[Activating skill “Night Parade of a Hundred Ghosts.”]
—You can borrow the power of stored souls.
In that instant, the fish in the fishbowl all flipped over at once, exposing their bellies as they floated to the surface.
The souls that slipped out of the fish glowed as they circled around Chuen, then smelled the hair and examined the photograph.
Chuen tapped the note.
“Find the owner of this note.”
The lights scattered in all directions like shards of light.
But at the same time—
Brrrr—
A vibration began to run through the room. The table trembled, and the note fell to the floor.
“…….”
Chuen slowly opened her eyes.
The souls were unable to leave the apartment and were circling around.
Something…… was blocking the pursuit.
The power she used was souls.
And the only thing that could block the movement of souls was another soul.
If so.
‘Is it someone who’s already dead…….’
In that instant, a gust of wind blew in and whispered at her ear. After hearing what it said, Chuen nodded.
“Mm. I understand. I’ll do that. If it’s a soul, it would be better not to pursue it any further.”
Chuen opened the folder of her old flip phone.
After entering the client’s number and hesitating for a moment, she sent a message: “The person who wrote the note is already dead, so I cannot proceed with the commission.”