The moment Para passed through the marker and entered the subspace, she sprinted frantically down the corridor.
“Sister! Sister Hatsune!”
Hatsune had warned her countless times not to run inside the mansion, yet at the sight of Para rushing toward her and shouting in panic, she furrowed her brow.
“Para. How many times have I told you not to run around inside the mansion—”
“Miria’s fighting a human outside right now!”
“What?”
At that single sentence, Hatsune’s rational thoughts came to a cold halt.
“Master told us never to cause a disturbance outside.”
“I know that! But that human suddenly pulled out a weapon and attacked first!”
At Para’s aggrieved cry, Hatsune’s mind began turning rapidly. A human attacked first? Could it be that hunters or some organization from the outside world had already discovered their異质 nature?
Having assessed the situation in an instant, Hatsune issued swift, cold-headed instructions.
“Cherina. Contact Master immediately. Flora, come with me to the scene.”
With the hem of her perfectly immaculate maid uniform fluttering, Hatsune shot off at high speed toward the alley where the marker was located, with Para leading the way.
Meanwhile, the narrow alley where Miria and Jia were clashing had already become a horrific mess, the outer walls of the surrounding buildings shattered and the asphalt ground gouged out.
Most of the destruction in the alley had been caused by Jia’s sword strikes as she rampaged while spewing killing intent. To obey Namhyeon’s order, Miria focused moderately on defense and counterattacked with sharp blasts of wind pressure, but Jia deflected and dodged the trajectories of wind with beastlike reflexes.
‘Ah, this is seriously frustrating.’
Because of her master’s command, she had to carefully control her strength, and on top of that, fighting while wearing this cramped human shell instead of her true form meant she couldn’t bring out even a quarter of a quarter of her real ability. Irritation surged within Miria from the sheer frustration.
In contrast, Jia kicked off the walls of the alley buildings at will, leaping through the air as she drove Miria back like a madwoman. But even her fierce offensive kept sliding off the barrier of wind that wrapped around Miria in a circle, unable to quite reach her.
‘What the hell is she? A ridiculous powerhouse like this was hiding in Korea?’
A question flashed through Jia’s mind. If she had thought calmly, she should have realized that the woman before her was an abnormal existence capable of deflecting the attacks of an S-rank with her bare body. But Jia’s mind was already burning with blind jealousy and madness, making rational judgment impossible.
‘None of that matters! Since she dared touch my man, I’ll never let her off!’
Jia swung her sword horizontally at Miria with an even more ominous momentum. Miria used the flow of wind to smoothly divert the attack and knocked it aside with wind pressure, but Jia nimbly twisted her body and evaded it as well.
As the fierce exchange continued—
Jia gathered all her magical power and concentrated it with extreme sharpness at the tip of the real sword in her hand. Then her body shot forward like an arrow released from a bowstring, and she launched a decisive thrust.
Paah—!
The compressed magical power of an S-rank finally pierced through Miria’s wind barrier and was about to impale Miria’s face.
“That’s enough.”
Along with a cold, weighty voice, someone appeared between the two like a ghost and seized Jia’s blue-glinting blade with her bare hand.
“Sister Hatsune.”
Miria stepped back with a sigh of relief.
Clad in a perfect, immaculate maid uniform, Hatsune was blocking an S-rank sword strike without shedding a single drop of blood from her bare hand. Beyond her glasses, her icy silver eyes gleamed as she stared coldly at the murderous Jia before her, as though seeing straight through her.
‘What is this maid?’
A perfect maid outfit, appearing completely out of nowhere. It was a bizarre attire that did not suit this alley at all, but what scraped sharply at Jia’s nerves was the overwhelming pressure radiating from beyond it.
‘She’s strong.’
Jia’s instincts were warning her. The bespectacled woman before her was a powerhouse on an entirely different level, incomparable to the green-haired woman she had been fighting until just moments ago.
“Miria. Are you hurt?”
“No, Sister. But about this—”
“I heard the rough situation from Para. Step back for now.”
“O-okay.”
As Miria obediently stepped back, Jia grew flustered and tightened her grip, trying to pull her sword out of Hatsune’s hand. But the blade did not budge a single millimeter, as if it had been embedded in the heart of a colossal rocky mountain.
While lightly gripping Jia’s sword with one hand, Hatsune raised the frame of her glasses with the other in a courteous yet chilling motion.
“So. Why did you suddenly attack us when we were simply passing by?”
“That’s what I want to ask. Who the hell are you people, clinging to ‘my man’ like that?”
“Your man...? Could you possibly be referring to ‘Master’?”
“Master?”
At that peculiar title, Jia’s eyebrow twitched as if she found it absurd.
A maid outfit, and “Master” on top of that. Jia’s twisted way of thinking warped even this grave situation toward Namhyeon’s secret private life.
‘What, is that the concept? I didn’t know our Hyeon liked that sort of thing. If he’d told me sooner, I would’ve done everything to match it for him.’
Hearing Jia’s arrogant, completely off-base muttering, Hatsune’s silver eyes sank sharply.
“What business do you have with our Master? Seeing as you dare call him ‘my man’... Could you be that ‘Lee Jia’?”
“You know me?”
“Of course. I heard about you clearly from Master.”
Hatsune’s voice dropped to a temperature below freezing. From the real sword in her hand came the cracking sound of fissures spreading.
“As if daring to bother Master and insolently trying to bind him wasn’t enough, you even dared to touch my precious family.”
Kugugugugu—!
At that moment, the explosive mana suppressed within Hatsune’s body began to be released.
The surrounding air was pressed down heavily, and the human shell she had been forcibly wearing began to ripple. Black dragon horns rose from either side of her black hair, and beneath her skirt, a massive dragon tail took shape.
“Wh-what... is this...!”
Jia’s pupils shook as though an earthquake had struck them.
The dense, destructive mana pouring from Hatsune was forming the shape of a gigantic “Black Dragon” in midair, as if it would devour a mountain. Even Jia, an S-rank Hunter in name and in truth, found her breath caught before that overwhelming, primal terror, her entire body stiffening rigidly.
Just as the dragon’s killing intent was about to tear Jia apart without leaving a trace—
“Hatsune, calm down.”
It was Namhyeon, who had received Cherina’s urgent message and crossed straight over the marker from the dungeon.
As he blocked Hatsune’s path on the verge of going berserk and hurriedly stopped her, Hatsune’s red eyes, which had been flashing as if she would lop off Jia’s head at any moment, froze for an instant.
Before Namhyeon, who had arrived at the scene by crossing the marker after receiving Cherina’s urgent message, a horrific sight unfolded.
The asphalt was deeply gouged, and the outer walls of the surrounding buildings had crumbled miserably. Amid the chaos of people screaming and fleeing, Namhyeon stood in front of Hatsune, who had been about to run wild while emitting the form of a colossal Black Dragon.
“Hide it.”
Namhyeon’s low, firm command. At that absolute order, the dragon form of Hatsune, which had been spewing killing intent as if it would bite Jia apart at any moment, faded away as if it had been a lie.
“Ah... yes, Master.”
Hatsune immediately concealed the horns and tail that had emerged, stepped back, and assumed the perfect posture of a maid with both hands neatly folded, as if nothing had happened. Namhyeon, having controlled her, turned his cold gaze toward Jia, who stood frozen in a daze.
“Hey, Lee Jia. What the hell are you doing here?”
“Hy-Hyeon... This is, I mean, those bitches first—”
As Jia tried to make excuses, Namhyeon’s gaze sank sharply.
“I’ll ask again. What the hell are you doing?”
Kuuung—!
The immense mana bursting from Namhyeon’s body crushed the narrow alley. It was the release of mana so deep and distant, like an abyss, that even the killing intent Hatsune had emitted moments ago seemed laughable. Jia, an S-rank Hunter in name and in truth, began trembling from instinctive fear like an aspen leaf.
‘What...? Hyeon was... this strong?’
It was the moment her arrogant assumption that she was far stronger than Namhyeon shattered into pieces. She had known he had become stronger, but she had never imagined he would be such an overwhelming existence, on a completely different level. Toward Jia, who was so terrified she could not even breathe properly, Namhyeon spat coldly.
“You laid a hand on my family?”
Family.
At that single word from Namhyeon’s mouth, Jia’s terror-stricken pupils began to shake madly.
“Fa... mily? You said family?”
“Yes. My precious family.”
Jia was engulfed by a shock as if she had been struck hard in the head with a hammer. It was a word she had never once heard, not even when she had devoted her entire life to staying by his side.
“What are you talking about...? Those things with no known origin are your family, Hyeon?!”
Jia’s voice turned piercing, as if it would tear apart. It was just as her blind jealousy was about to swallow even her fear.
“Hey, Lee Jia!”
As Namhyeon erupted in anger, the space around him began to ripple bizarrely like a heat haze. At that terrifying pressure, even Miria and Para behind him clung tightly to each other in fear, only watching their master’s reaction.
But the situation was far too bad to get angry right now. He could sense people gathering toward the alley, murmuring after hearing the explosions and commotion.
“Haa... This is seriously driving me insane.”
Namhyeon nervously swept back his hair and looked over the utterly shattered alley. If they left it like this, it would only be a matter of time before it made headline news.
“Hatsune, we’re restoring this place first. Flora, you come help too.”
“Yes, Master!”
“Understood, Master!”
Flora, who had belatedly joined them through the marker, and Hatsune approached Namhyeon’s sides.
Namhyeon stretched out both hands and unfolded illusion arts with an enormous amount of magical power. Blue light covered the alley, then precisely realized the original appearance of the buildings before they were destroyed and the intact shape of the asphalt ground as a “blueprint of illusion.”
Over it, Hatsune and Flora poured the vast mana of dragons, overlaying the fake illusion with “true physical reality” and fixing it in place.
The shattered concrete reattached itself as if in reverse playback, and the gouged ground became flat in an instant. In just a few dozen seconds, the horrific traces of battle were completely erased, and the alley returned to an ordinary street where nothing had happened.
“Impossible...”
Having witnessed that godlike miracle of reality manipulation before her eyes, Jia sank to the ground with her mouth hanging open as if her jaw would fall off. It was an authority from another dimension, one against which her S-rank martial might could not even present a business card.
The footsteps of the approaching people were drawing near the mouth of the alley.
Namhyeon looked coldly down at the dazed Jia and let out a short sigh. If he left this madwoman in the outside world like this, there was no telling what other horrifying thing she might do. She needed to be isolated.
“Haa. Lee Jia, follow me for now.”
With a single gesture from Namhyeon, the air split open and a huge portal leading to the subspace appeared.
Completely cowed by the overwhelming gap in power and the magic that shattered common sense, Jia staggered to her feet as if bewitched by Namhyeon’s words and moved toward that strange threshold.
And the moment Jia stepped into the portal, the alley was left with no trace of anything at all, only a quiet stillness settling over it.