“Hey! Are you not coming back right now? This is disobeying orders!”
In the end, the voice of Team 1’s leader exploded through the phone she had accepted.
Scarlet calmly brought the phone she had deliberately held far away back to her ear and answered.
“Team Leader, there’s nothing for you to worry about.”
“What?”
“I know very well just how dangerous that deliveryman is. Even if all of Team 1, made up entirely of S-rank Hunters, rushed him at once, it would be decided within five minutes.”
“…Go on.”
“It’s simple. I’ll prove that you weren’t wrong to choose me.”
“Grr… Fine. But do not provoke him under any circumstances. If you think it won’t work, give up without hesitation. Got it? If by any chance that deliveryman goes on a rampage…”
“Yees~ I know~ I said I know~”
“You little…”
“I shouldn’t talk on the phone while driving, so I’ll hang up now~♥”
Just then, the traffic light turned red.
Scarlet immediately stepped on the brake and recalled the Hyeondo she had seen a moment ago.
“Heheh… eheheh…♥”
Even through the abysmal quality of the CCTV footage, she could tell clearly.
Even the ID photo, the kind that made everyone look stupid, had sent tingles through her.
That man was the person I had longed for, the person I had searched everywhere to find.
…While Scarlet was thinking that.
At last, the traffic light turned green.
—Vroooom…!
The red sports car roared as it shot down the main road.
***
“Ugh… uuuugh…! Phew…”
Crack, crackle.
As I stretched, the pleasant sound of joints settling into place rang out from all over my body.
If there was one thing I was grateful to that damn goddess, Pattis, for, it was the goddess’s blessing dwelling within Claire.
Even after eighty years of war against the demon race, I hadn’t aged or fallen ill at all.
Not just in body, but in mind as well.
‘Though I have absolutely no intention of thanking her…’
In any case, even though I was a little over a hundred years old, my face, body, and mind were still exactly as they had been in my twenties.
Hmm… my mental age was probably a bit older compared to kids these days, but…
Anyway, it was time for breakfast, so I headed toward the sink.
—Rrrrip…
I peeled open the lid of a cup of instant noodles and boiled the water I had filled the electric kettle with.
Whenever I waited for water to boil like this, I was reminded of when I first came to Korea in this era.
The taste of yukgaejang that still hadn’t changed even in the year 2090 had truly been enough to bring tears to my eyes.
I never imagined I would come to understand the saying that masterpieces transcend the ages through the taste of cup noodles.
—Gurgle~
I poured the boiled water into the cup noodle container.
In this era, when an unidentified giant tower had appeared in the heart of Seoul, and the cores of monsters were used as room-temperature, ambient-pressure superconductors.
Thanks to that, everything about the Seoul I once knew had changed beyond recognition, but there were also things that remained unchanged, like these cup noodles.
“Things that have changed and things that haven’t… Haha.”
I wondered what the guys who fought the demons with me were doing now.
Bain, the dwarven warrior and my closest friend… that guy was a prince, a warrior, and a blacksmith, so he probably went back to his kingdom and became king.
Silas, the elven archer, that long-eared bastard must have returned to being captain of the Great Forest’s patrol.
‘That reminds me of Silas’s older sister… Sylvia… She really was a lovely woman… Though she was a little obsessive.’
And lastly, Alphonse, the half-human, half-demon who wielded divine power and magic.
Born between a human priest father and a dream-demon mother, Alphonse had already been an archmage before he met me.
Because of his birth, which was difficult to tell others about, the fact that he could borrow the goddess’s power was a secret.
In any case, now that all seventy-two Demon Kings were dead, I thought Alphonse had probably returned to the Magic Tower or was taking care of his mother.
‘Alphonse’s mother… Lamia was intense, too…’
Even now, when I closed my eyes, it shimmered before me.
The sweet yet comforting fragrance of a succubus overflowing with maternal affection.
As I was recalling those pleasant and passionate memories, Claire, transformed into a silver cat, approached me.
“Hehe… That’s the face you make when you’re thinking of women you shared a bed with, Hero.”
“Ahem. I told you to use dignified words befitting a Holy Sword.”
“Ah, right. You preferred to call it a midsummer night’s dream, didn’t you, Hero?”
She should have just said that from the start. She definitely says things like that on purpose even though she knows.
In truth, aside from Silas’s sister and Alphonse’s mother, there had been many women who had dreamed the same dream as I did.
Well… I may have been a Hero, but I wasn’t a saint.
So I had never once assaulted a woman who said no or forced myself on anyone, but I had never rejected a woman who approached me first, either.
Back then, I never knew when or where I might die.
Even so, wasn’t it a bit much to share a bed with a comrade’s sister or mother?
As if. As a Hero, I had a duty to wipe away people’s tears.
Whether those tears flowed because of the threat of the demon race, or because of a loneliness no one else could soothe.
“Anyway…”
—Slurp~
I put a chopstickful of perfectly cooked cup noodles into my mouth.
That violent savoriness spreading through my mouth today as always, that slight hint of spice.
It could be called the perfect meal for a peaceful morning.
And the moment I drank down even the broth without leaving a drop…
“Hero.”
For once, Claire’s voice sank low.
“Yeah, it looks like we have a guest.”
A presence I had been sensing from far away was approaching the studio apartment where I lived.
Judging by the way they had completely erased their footsteps, they were reasonably strong.
However, judging from the fact that neither their qi nor their mana was showing any particular movement, it didn’t seem like they intended hostility…
“What will you do?”
“What else?”
If they were a guest, I should receive them.
If they weren’t… well, then it couldn’t be helped.
‘Hehe, Hero, your fate is thick with trouble from women.’
For some reason, I recalled a single line I had heard from a fortune-teller dark elf long ago.
Now that I thought about it, that dark elf had also been… quite, no, very… extremely…
—Ding-dong~
The doorbell broke me out of the memories I was about to sink into again.
“Hmm, come to think of it, this is the first guest I’ve had in three years.”
And so, I approached the door where someone was waiting.
***
—Click.
“Oh my~ Hello~”
The guest who had come looking for me was truly… unexpected.
Blond hair and blue eyes, a body that looked ready to burst. You could call her the typical blond-haired, blue-eyed beauty.
‘But why is she dressed like that…?’
The buttons of her shirt, barely holding on to a pitiable degree.
The employee ID she had placed right above her chest as if to show it off.
A tight skirt that seemed worn not to cover her body, but to reveal it.
It was such a textbook honey trap that it no longer even felt like a honey trap.
“Yes, hello. But who are you…?”
“Hehehe, I’m not that suspicious a person. Now, if you look here… ehehe…”
The beauty who had suddenly come to find me thrust her chest out in front of me.
Or more precisely, the employee ID placed atop her cleavage.
“Scarlet Kim… Changseong…? By any chance, Changseong Electronics?”
“Ah, just for reference, I’m absolutely not impersonating them. If you want, I can prove it to you. If you wish… even with this body…”
“No, there’s no need to go that far. So what brings someone from Changseong to see me?”
Since she had conveniently appeared before me, I took a brief look at the mysterious beauty.
On the surface, this woman looked promiscuous, but she was by no means easy.
You could tell just by the muscles attached precisely where they were needed.
Judging by the location and shape of the calluses on her hands, her main weapon seemed to be a cold weapon… but not an ordinary sword or spear… It seemed like quite a unique style.
‘Above all, the mana accumulated in her lower abdomen, her dantian… For an ordinary human, it’s considerable. She’d be about on par with a high-ranking demon.’
Though she was still nowhere near the level of the seventy-two Demon Kings.
The moment I made that evaluation inwardly, Scarlet’s eyes curved softly.
“Mm… May I tell you the details inside?”
“It seems this isn’t something to discuss through a doorway?”
“Yes. I have something to tell you about the monster you dealt with yesterday, Mr. Lee Hyeondo.”
The sharp gaze hidden behind her gentle smile was saying this:
I know who you are and what you did yesterday.
It was such an obvious attitude, but… I couldn’t sense any hostility or killing intent.
In that case, I could still treat her as a guest for now.
“Understood. Please come in. Unfortunately, this is a home where a man lives alone, so I can’t offer you anything to drink.”
“Hehe, that’s all right. I get drunk easily, and I live alone.”
“Pardon?”
“Heheh♥”
What is she suddenly talking about? It’s not like she picked up some phrase somewhere and decided to use it now.
Still… what is this feeling… It’s a sensation I’ve felt a few times before… but it’s been so long that I can’t quite place it…
***
“Haa… It has such a rich, wonderful scent…”
“…?”
Why is that woman taking a deep breath the moment she enters my home?
A rich, wonderful scent… Ah, I did just eat cup noodles.
Anyway, my place doesn’t have anything like chairs or a table for guests.
So…
“Please sit.”
I sat down on the bare floor first.
Then Scarlet sat down in front of me without the slightest surprise.
“Whew… By the way, it’s a little hot in here~”
She said something entirely unsuited to March, when winter still hadn’t quite passed.
“If you don’t mind, may I take off my jacket? Hehe.”
“Yes, well… if you’d like…”
“Oh my, thank you. Then, if you’ll excuse me…”
Hmm… Honestly, it was nice.
A beautiful woman who had worked hard to maintain her body was saying she would show it off; stopping her wouldn’t be manly.
I put on an expression that looked utterly indifferent and admired Scarlet’s gradually revealed body.
—Slide…
The suit jacket slowly slipped downward as if on display.
Because of the clinging shirt, the violent lines of her figure stood out all the more.
The thought that women who trained really were nice surfaced in my mind before I knew it, and the moment it did, Scarlet’s red lips moved.
“Hehe, what do you think?”
“You’re beautiful.”
“Oh my, thank you. Though I wasn’t actually talking about myself. Mmhaha…”
Maybe it was just my imagination, but Scarlet seemed to be smacking her lips while looking at me.
On top of that, even Claire’s eyes, while she pretended to be a decorative doll, seemed to have turned vulgar…
Now that I look, all of her underwear is showing through. Did she dress like that on purpose?
“Now then, shall we begin the real discussion? As you just saw, I’m Scarlet Kim. A Hunter working under Changseong. Not that I mean to brag, but I’m an S-rank Hunter.”
“If you’re a highest-rank Hunter, that’s worth bragging about.”
“Hehe, in front of you, Mr. Hyeondo, being an S-rank Hunter means nothing. If you were to pounce on me, I wouldn’t be able to resist at all… haa…”
“…I don’t do things like that without a reason.”
“Aha, then if you had a reason, you would pounce?”
No, I wouldn’t. Never mind, just tell me why you came here.
Mm… That kind of old otaku humor probably wouldn’t land.
“For now, please tell me why Changseong came looking for me.”
“Understood. First, would you accept this?”
Scarlet held out a single black card in front of me.
“What’s this?”
“The magical beast you subjugated yesterday is apparently an A-rank identified beast called Hecatoncheires. And we recovered the core you left behind. This card is payment for the core, but it is also our thanks for your efforts in stopping a sudden rift and preventing damage.”
Thanks for my efforts, huh. It wasn’t something I had done hoping for that.
Still, I was a bit curious just how grateful they were to me.
“Aha. Hmm… It doesn’t seem like an ordinary card…”
“That’s correct. This card has no spending limit. Nor does it have an expiration date. Lastly, no matter where or how you use this card, Mr. Hyeondo, Changseong will cover all the costs.”
“…Huh.”
Even if it included their gratitude toward me, still.
Besides, was that hybrid stitched together from corpses really worth as much as this card…?
The answer to that question came immediately.
‘As if it would be.’
What kind of organization was a corporation?
Leaving the card Scarlet had offered me on the floor, I looked straight into Scarlet’s blue eyes.
As if she had been waiting for it, Scarlet blushed, loosened the clothes that were already undone even further, and began acting coy.
“Aah~♥ When you look at me with eyes like thaat…”
“Let’s stop the act there. What does Changseong want from me?”
“It isn’t an act… Mm, actually, don’t you already know, Mr. Hyeondo? Why I came to see you.”
“Well… I suppose it means you’re asking whether I have any intention of working for Changseong.”
“That’s right. What do you think? If it’s you, Mr. Hyeondo, no matter what conditions you demand, we will accept them unconditionally.”
“Haha.”
I’m not bragging, but I was once the Hero who saved the world.
And they were trying to buy someone like me with money?
In that case, the answer I had to give back was…