Chapter 9
Meanwhile, the last of the sunset faded on into evening.
Lee Minjeong stopped by the office of Reconnaissance Division, Section 3, to submit her statement.
She handed it to the gray-haired man with slicked-back hair sitting on a sofa at the back of the room.
The man skimmed through the statement.
His face twisted as he rose from his seat and smacked her across the cheek with the statement.
-Smack!
“T-Team Leader……?”
“You call this piece of crap a statement?!”
With his already fierce-looking face, he glared at Lee Minjeong as if he wanted to kill her.
Frightened by his shouting and violence, Lee Minjeong
trembled as she felt her panties growing damp.
“I’m sorry, Team Leader……”
“Haah, seriously. How did a deadweight like you become a Devil Hunter? Don’t Devil Hunters have entrance exams anymore? No, forget that. Why did you have to end up on my team? Of all the teams out there……!”
“I want to do well, too, but it’s just not going the way I hoped……. I’m sorry.”
“Enough. Get out of my sight, now. Just looking at you makes me want to puke.”
“……”
……Once again, Lee Minjeong had been thoroughly chewed out by her team leader that day.
After a harsh scolding, she was kicked out of the office and muttered with a dejected expression.
“Tch, it’s not like I want to be this way……”
Lee Minjeong immediately pulled her phone from her pocket and checked her bank balance.
Even though everyone called her a deadweight, she was paid the same amount as any other F-rank Devil Hunter.
“Yes! I’ve saved enough! Now I can buy that Feather Man figure!”
……The reason Lee Minjeong became a Devil Hunter.
It wasn’t out of a sense of justice or a desire for revenge; she’d simply wanted to earn money and indulge her passion as a fan.
With lighter steps than when she’d entered the office, she hurried off toward a figure shop.
The busy shopping district near Association headquarters.
With Devil Hunters ensuring the area’s safety, all kinds of shops lined the streets.
Including the figure shop Lee Minjeong was headed for.
……As soon as she opened the door, she spoke in the brightest voice she could muster.
“Hello, shopkeeper! Do you have any Feather Man figures?!”
“Mister, give me the new Feather Man figure!”
At that moment, a young boy who had come in with her also asked for a Feather Man figure.
Just as Lee Minjeong and the young boy began eyeing each other warily, sizing each other up,
the shopkeeper, who had been organizing the storeroom, came out to the counter and answered with a wistful smile.
“Sorry, kid. That new Feather Man figure was reserved by that young lady a long time ago. There’s nothing I can do.”
“Whaaat?! Really?! Nooo, it can’t be……! My Feather Man figure……! Mister, when will you get more in stock?! I can come back anytime!”
“Well……. This figure is a summer-season limited edition, so I don’t think we’ll be restocking it.”
“Whaaaat?! That can’t be……!”
“……”
Lee Minjeong placed a hand over her chest and watched the boy cry out in despair.
……And suddenly, she saw herself as a child in that boy.
Back before devils descended upon the world.
When she was bullied at school, the only place she could escape to was Feather Rescue, a superhero series starring the hero of justice, Feather Man.
In the end, Lee Minjeong’s heart wavered.
In a voice that sounded as if she were swallowing back tears, she struggled to speak.
“……I-I’m sorry, sir, but actually, I came to cancel my reservation. Please let that kid have it.”
“W-what……? Weren’t you collecting every Feather Man figure?”
“I’ll be fine. Sniff……. Everyone should get to know how great Feather Man is……”
“……All right. If that’s what you want.”
As the muscular shopkeeper shook his head, the boy’s face brightened again.
He bowed deeply to Lee Minjeong and said,
“Thank you, miss……! It’s the figure I wanted so badly! You’re my lifesaver!”
“Sure. You’re a Feather Man fan, too, huh? Feather Man looks so cool when he shoots an arrow, doesn’t he~?”
“Yeah! Totally! Ah, but lately Feather Man keeps using a sword, and that’s kind of disappointing! He’s the strongest archer in the world!”
Lee Minjeong nodded, genuinely agreeing with the boy.
They chatted happily for a while, until it was time for the shop to close.
“……It’s too bad. It’s been ages since I met someone I could really talk to. Hey, kid, what’s your name?”
“Me? My name’s Junhwi! I live around here! I come to this shop a lot, too, so tell me more about Feather Man’s backstory next time!”
“Hehe, all right! I promise!”
Lee Minjeong even hooked pinkies with the boy to seal their promise before leaving the figure shop.
As soon as she stepped outside and took in the fresh air, her expression turned gloomy and she fidgeted with her hands.
“Sniff…… They’ll scold me again when I go to work tomorrow, won’t they? I don’t want to go. But I have to, right?”
Lee Minjeong started muttering as she rolled a pebble around with her foot.
Although she’d become a Devil Hunter to earn enough money to buy figures, she’d picked up a bow because she wanted to become an archer who protected the world, like Feather Man.
But reality wasn’t as kind as she’d imagined.
There was her team leader and her senior teammates, who hated her, and then there were the terrifying devils……
She wasn’t the protagonist of this world.
She was just an extra who got in the protagonists’ way.
……Manga and reality were entirely different.
That evening, moonlight shone down on Lee Minjeong’s sorry figure.
She wanted to escape this miserable reality right then and there.
*
“Still, she seems like a decent person.”
In a space where everything was pitch-black,
I watched Lee Minjeong’s life through the mirror.
She’d risked her life to save up for figures, yet she’d given one up to a child without a second thought.
She was definitely a deadweight, but at least she didn’t seem to be a deadweight as a person.
“By the way, she said Feather Man, didn’t she? An archer……”
……I remembered the arrow Lee Minjeong had fired in the mountains the night before.
The arrow that had pierced the forehead of the devil leaping at her from behind.
She’d turned, aimed, controlled her breathing, and fired almost all at once.
Even if she’d used the devil’s power, she was still the one wielding it.
In that respect, the girl didn’t seem to lack potential at all.
……If anything, she seemed to be overflowing with it.
“You said I had to unlock an authority to bring out Lee Minjeong’s potential, right?”
I swallowed hard and steeled myself, and just then a status window appeared before my eyes.
[Notification: The Growth Reward cooldown has reset!]
[Souls (Low-Rank) required for the next growth stage: 121/100]
[Growth stage value has exceeded its maximum. You may choose one of the following rewards.]
[1. Unlock a New Authority]
[2. Reduce a Contractor’s Soul Erosion Rate]
[3. Extend the Time Until Bodily Collapse]
“……I have to choose.”
Whether to lower Han Seorin’s soul erosion rate.
Or unlock a new authority and get one step closer to developing Lee Minjeong’s potential.
……I thought it over carefully.
Back when I was a Devil Hunter, it took about a year to go from gaining a devil’s power to becoming a devil myself.
But at the rate Han Seorin was going, she wouldn’t even make it half a year.
‘Then maybe the one who made a contract with me lowered my soul erosion rate, too?’
They must have, at least once.
But was that when it happened?
“Ah, I don’t know. Seriously……”
……I hated complicated things, so I decided to keep it simple.
Han Seorin was growing.
Lee Minjeong needed to grow.
Then what about me?
……I needed to grow and lend them my power.
“Let’s unlock an authority.”
After thinking it over, I pressed option number one.
-Click.
[Notification: Unlocking a new authority for your contractors!]
[Analyzing the contractors’ aptitudes and combat styles.]
[Analysis complete.]
[New Authority ‘Devil’s Eye’ has been unlocked!]
[Granting ‘Devil’s Eye (Passive)’ to your contractors!]
[Passive: Devil’s Eye (C-Rank)]
- When the devil’s power manifests, time appears to slow down.
- Weak points in a target’s body and the devil’s core are marked in red.
[* Caution!]
- Using Devil’s Eye for an extended period of time will tint the contractor’s vision red and increase their soul erosion rate.
[The maximum growth stage value has increased to 200!]
“……This seems pretty good, doesn’t it?”
I wasn’t familiar with whips or longbows, so I wasn’t sure how useful this authority would be for them……
But as someone who’d used a sword, I thought it was a pretty great authority.
Especially since it let you see weak points and a devil’s core.
I thought this might even let them hunt devils above their rank.
“If a devil’s core is destroyed, the devil dies instantly.”
……Anyway, I’d made my choice.
All that remained was to leave the rest to fate.
It was then that I unlocked the new authority, hoping their souls wouldn’t be eroded any further.
*
The next morning.
“Lee Minjeong.”
Lee Minjeong flinched at the voice calling her name as she entered the office of Reconnaissance Division, Section 3.
At the same time, the team leader with gray slicked-back hair spoke in an indifferent voice.
“You’re going alone today.”
“M-Me? Alone……?”
“That’s right. An F-rank Gate just appeared near Association headquarters. Your teammates are already inside, so patrol around the Gate and check for any unusual signs.”
“……”
Lee Minjeong kept a calm expression despite her cold sweat, but inside, her stomach was churning.
No wonder the office had seemed empty.
Her senior teammates had left without her.
‘I’m totally being treated like a lost cause…….’
She sighed, but had no choice but to head out to the scene.
It wasn’t far from the figure shop she’d visited yesterday.
The moment Lee Minjeong arrived at the scene,
-Hummmm……!
a sinister, dark-red Gate rippled beyond the barricade.
Association staff and police had gathered around the Gate to keep civilians away.
The moment Lee Minjeong showed them her ID and crossed the barricade,
“……Junhwi, where are you?! Our Junhwi!”
a woman’s piercing wail rang out from somewhere.
Lee Minjeong stopped and turned around.
The voice had come from a middle-aged woman clutching a police officer’s collar and sobbing.
“Officer, have you seen my Junhwi?! He disappeared while I looked away for just a moment!”
“Please calm down. The people in charge are searching the area around the Gate.”
“That child, that child……! He comes to the figure shop nearby all the time! He didn’t go inside that Gate, did he……?!”
“……We’re checking. I’m sorry.”
“N-no, it can’t be…… Junhwi, Junhwi……!”
“Junhwi……?”
Lee Minjeong’s expression stiffened at the familiar name.
The boy she’d befriended the day before while talking about Feather Man.
Had he gone missing around here……?
No way.
“Hey, the search team member who went in earlier. Could you come over here for a moment……?”
“……”
“……Huh? Where’d she go? Hey, did that woman just go into the Gate?”
“I-I didn’t see clearly……”
“Damn it……!”
As the Association staff and police began to stir at the sudden disappearance of the search team member,
Lee Minjeong took the longbow from her back and went into the Gate.
Even if manga and reality were entirely different,
……she was determined that the boy should have a hero of justice.