The one-month grace period Namhyeon had tossed her before leaving.
During that period, neither short nor long, the obsession coiled in the depths of Jia's heart showed no signs of waning; instead, it festered into an uncontrollable monster.
The decisive trigger was the "amusement park photo" she had obtained by chance through an informant not long ago.
Six dazzling beauties smiling brightly beside Namhyeon in her absence. After seeing that photo, Jia's mental state plummeted straight through the floor into the abyss.
The extreme anxiety from Namhyeon not being by her side, and jealousy that unknown bitches had usurped her place. Jia barely suppressed those explosive emotions solely by slaughtering demonic beasts in high-rank dungeons.
Kwaaaang-!!
The boss room of an S-rank dungeon. The giant demonic beast's head exploded like a watermelon from a single punch by Jia.
"Haa... haa..."
Behind Jia, who was panting roughly while drenched in blood, the raid Hunters who had partied with her were frozen in fear, unable to even breathe properly. They merely watched her, afraid that provoking an S-rank Hunter even slightly would make them end up just like that demonic beast. But Jia dusted off her blood-soaked hand and ignored the raid members as if they were insects. Because she had no interest in anyone other than Namhyeon, she didn't even feel the need to vent her anger or take it out on them.
The place Jia headed immediately after escaping the dungeon was her secret safe house, and she made a call right away.
"So this is all you managed to find out?"
At Jia's frigid voice, the information broker called the best in the underworld broke into a cold sweat and bowed his head repeatedly.
"I-I'm sorry! But there truly was nothing I could find out!"
Jia had ordered a thorough investigation into the six women by Namhyeon's side. But the results that came back were devastating.
Resident registration numbers, age, origin, past records—none of them could be found. The only certain thing was their gender, "female," as confirmed by the photos. They were like people who had never existed in this world and then suddenly dropped from the sky one day.
After sending the broker away as if chasing him out, Jia opened her bedroom door with heavy steps.
When she turned on the switch, a horrifying sight filled the room.
The walls on all sides were completely plastered with candid photos of Namhyeon taken in secret, without a single gap. Namhyeon eating during his academy days, sleeping Namhyeon, walking Namhyeon. Standing in the center of that bizarre forest of photos, Jia lovingly caressed Namhyeon's face in the amusement park photo.
"Hyun... wait. I'll come to you soon."
Jia's unfocused pupils glinted grotesquely.
"The homework you mentioned, I've already solved it all. I know why you pushed me away, and what I must do for you."
She had never intended to wait quietly for Namhyeon's contact for a month. Jia was going crazy with the desire to prove to him the twisted answer she had reached—"I'll become so perfectly strong that you won't even dare think of running away"—as quickly as possible.
But before that, there were "bugs" she needed to deal with.
Jia picked up her phone again and deposited an enormous sum of money to her informants. They were humans who would sell their souls if money was involved.
"Those bitches... it doesn't matter who they are or where they came from. Whether it's the amusement park, in front of the guild, or the streets."
Jia's voice dripped with frost-like killing intent.
"The moment you find them, just tell me their location."
Her gaze was already no different from that of a murderer. Running hundreds of simulations in her head about what terrible way she would tear apart those unidentified bitches circling Namhyeon the moment she found them, Jia formed a chilling smile.
.
Mirea and Para exited the subspace through the marker in the hidden alley designated by Namhyeon.
Their destination was a nearby large mart. Tiara, who was in charge of cooking, had asked them to run an errand, saying they were lacking ingredients for the evening feast. Instead of conspicuous maid outfits, the two walked the streets wearing ordinary modern casual clothes to their own tastes.
Their attire was extremely ordinary, but the gazes of passersby kept flicking toward them the entire time they walked. While it was partly due to their eye-catching beauty, more than anything it was their alien hair colors. In the middle of Korea where black hair was the majority, Mirea's lustrous green hair and Para's dazzling blue hair inevitably attracted attention.
But the two Dragons lightly ignored the humans' gazes and headed straight for the mart. While sweeping the items from the memo Tiara had written into their cart, Para's eyes sparkled as they passed the snack aisle.
"Mirea, let's buy these too!"
Para said, hugging an armful of snacks in colorful packaging as if wagging her tail. Mirea also smacked her lips and nodded readily.
"Shall we? We should get some snacks for ourselves too."
The two, having filled their cart in good spirits, finished checking out and left the mart with heavy plastic bags in both hands. They were humming as they walked toward the subspace marker where Namhyeon waited.
"Excuse us for a moment."
At the entrance of a sparsely populated alley, four burly men in black suits suddenly appeared and surrounded Mirea and Para in a circle. They were underworld informants and thugs Jia had hired with money.
But Mirea, not knowing the circumstances, merely snorted, dismissing it as common street harassment.
"Us? What, are you trying to pick us up because we're pretty? How unfortunate for you. We already have a perfect mate (Master) in our hearts, you see."
Mirea coldly refused and tried to walk past them.
"Why don't you just come quietly?"
The largest man among them approached threateningly and grabbed Mirea's slender arm.
"Huh...?"
But the one bewildered wasn't Mirea—it was the man. He was certain he had grabbed a soft woman's arm, yet the sensation conveyed to his grip was like clutching a **"giant boulder"** deeply rooted in the earth.
"Let go?"
As soon as Mirea's frigid warning fell, the man felt instinctive fear and broke into a cold sweat. Startled, he let go, and the other men surrounding them clicked their tongues and rushed in to overwhelm the two.
"Ah, seriously. Mas... no, Oppa said we absolutely mustn't cause a disturbance outside."
Mirea scratched her head in annoyance. It was obvious that if she used her strength against humans, it would be front-page news immediately.
Mirea, the Wind Dragon, narrowed her eyes and released a very minute amount of mana.
Fwhiiiiing-!!
Instantly, the dirt and trash on the alley floor surged up on a rough gust, completely obscuring the men's vision. Leaving the men coughing and unable to open their eyes behind her, Mirea shouted urgently.
"Para, run!"
"O-okay!"
Suppressing their magic power as much as possible to avoid drawing people's attention, the two escaped the alley and ran furiously.
'This should be safe, right?'
The location of the hidden marker Namhyeon had engraved came into view. If they just turned that corner and opened the portal, it would be the safe subspace mansion. It was the moment she was about to let out a sigh of relief.
"You there, stop."
A frigid shadow standing at the end of the alley, blocking the marker.
With overwhelming killing intent that froze even the surrounding air, I Jia, Korea's S-rank Hunter, stood blocking the two Dragons.
Feeling the fairly strong killing intent that seemed to crush the alley, Mirea tilted her head crookedly.
"Who are you?"
At her question, Jia glared at Mirea and Para alternately with a gaze that looked ready to tear someone apart at any moment.
"That's what I want to ask. What's your relationship with Hyun?"
"Hyun...? Ah, Namhyeon."
Since she only called him by the absolute honorific "Master" at the mansion, it took Mirea a moment to recall Namhyeon's real name.
"Why is she asking about him? Do you know her?"
"That's none of your business! So what the hell are you? Why are you clinging to 'my man' like leeches without permission!"
Jia's voice trembled finely with anger and jealousy. Already, pitch-black killing intent that refused to see the opponent as human welled in her pupils. Having caught the scent of that pathological obsession, Mirea roughly scratched her green hair as if annoyed.
"Aah, the type that you can't reason with at all. This is troublesome."
Mirea roughly intuited the reason Namhyeon had run away from her so desperately. She gestured toward Para, who was trembling behind her.
"Para, you go back first with the groceries."
"Mirea? A-are you sure you'll be okay?"
"Go back and tell Hatsune unni about the situation here. And do you think I'd lose to something like that?"
When Mirea asked with a smirk, Para finally nodded as if relieved. She knew the martial power of Dragons better than anyone.
"That's true! I'll go first then!"
It was the moment Para neatly gripped the plastic bags in both hands and tried to step toward the corner where the marker was.
"Who said you could leave as you please?"
A shimmering flash from the spatial expansion bracelet on Jia's hand, and a deep blue true sword was drawn out.
Korea's S-rank Hunter, I Jia, who devastated enemies with overwhelming swordsmanship and was called the "Sword Princess" (劍姬). Her sword mercilessly descended toward the back of the fleeing Para.
Kaaaang-!!
A roar loud enough to make the alley resound and reverberate. But Jia's sword did not reach Para's back.
Mirea, who had blocked in front of Para in an instant, had repelled Jia's true sword head-on with both arms wrapped in highly condensed wind mana.
"You... you're pretty good?"
Jia's eyes were colored with interest and shock. Though it hadn't been a strike with full power, there were only a handful of beings in Korea who could block an S-rank Hunter's sword strike with bare arms.
"Haa... she's really being a nuisance."
Mirea scowled fiercely while contesting strength with Jia at close range.
"It's incredibly hard to fight in this form."
She had the power to swat Jia away with a single finger if she unleashed her Dragon's true form, but because of Namhyeon's strict order not to cause accidents outside, she had to forcibly maintain her human form. Mirea's suppressed irritation exploded, and dense, massive wind mana began to be released from her body.
A violent mana storm powerful enough to send the alley's trash cans flying and warp shutters.
Feeling that overwhelming aura through her skin, Jia furrowed her brows fiercely and gripped the sword hilt with both hands. The reason these unidentified women were by Namhyeon's side no longer mattered. Only the certainty remained that they were terrible obstacles that must not be left alive.
"I'll kill you."
At the same time as a spine-chilling death sentence fell from between Jia's lips, her sword rushed toward Mirea's neck like lightning.
"Try it if you can!"
Mirea likewise wrapped rough gales around both fists and threw a punch toward Jia's sword strike.
Kwaang-! Kwagagagang-!!
The Dragon's martial arts clad in wind and the S-rank Hunter's merciless swordsmanship began to clash explosively within the narrow alley.