Chapter 58
“…What?”
Everyone there froze.
“You’re saying she joined the White Tiger Guild?”
Jeong Myeong-su asked with an unbelieving expression.
“No, why? Artifacts, money, convenience in Korea. We can offer so much!?”
“Maybe she actually didn’t have the skills? She ran away from the pressure.”
It was his direct subordinate, Yu Jeong-won.
He asked with a sly look, but Park Hyun-young brushed him off.
“Say something that makes sense! The White Tiger Guild is also a third-ranked guild!”
The White Tiger Guild even had an S-rank close-combat hunter.
On top of that, Lee Se-ra was now preparing to graduate from the Tower.
Once she finished clearing Very Hard’s 40th floor, she would be entering the lower end of S-rank.
...So it really was connections.
I didn’t know what trick Lee Se-ra had pulled, but she’d whisked Yumia away.
Park Hyun-young deflated instantly.
He had already lost the desire to argue with Jeong Myeong-su, who stood there with a dumb look on his face.
“Now, hold on a second.”
“What now?”
“If you look closely here, it says preliminary contract, doesn’t it?”
“If it’s a preliminary contract, isn’t that just a formality before the official contract?”
In the Hunter industry, a preliminary contract was practically the same as a formal one.
No press release had come out at all, and the registration was only a few lines on the website, in accordance with disclosure obligations.
“Then couldn’t we contact Yumia’s side and take her away?”
At his subordinate’s words, Park Hyun-young froze this time.
“Still, that would be breaking business ethics...”
“They broke business ethics first, didn’t they?”
“...Hmm.”
That made sense.
It definitely made sense.
If they could steal Yumia away anyway, the White Tiger Guild would be no match for them.
“That does have some merit.”
Byung Jin-ho was also, undeniably, a B-rank criminal.
He didn’t particularly want to praise his subordinate, but Yu Jeong-won was undeniably a capable B-rank hunter.
The fact that he’d captured Byung Jin-ho, whom they couldn’t catch, was proof that his skills were extraordinary.
Definitely too good to let slip away.
“Good. Then we’ll keep waiting here.”
“Pardon? Wouldn’t it be better to look somewhere else?”
“The water and electricity haven’t been cut off. She’ll come back at some point. And look at the reports we’ve gathered so far.”
“Let’s see where—gasp.”
Yu Jeong-won once again confirmed how capable his superior was.
“There are no lodging records in the Seoul metropolitan area or around Chuncheon.”
The name Yumia didn’t appear anywhere.
Even after searching the entire area, she hadn’t turned up.
That meant...
“She’s been staying here the whole time, and only recently resumed activity.”
A reasonable deduction.
“It’s a place she’s lived for years. There’s no way she wouldn’t be attached to it.”
“That makes sense too.”
Yu Jeong-won nodded.
“Heh, then I suppose we have no choice but to wait.”
“What was that?”
Park Hyun-young asked bluntly.
But Jeong Myeong-su asked with a smile.
“Aren’t you curious about what happened on ‘that day’?”
“...What?”
“I’ll reveal, right here and now, that what you know isn’t everything.”
Jeong Myeong-su began telling Park Hyun-young the story behind that day.
And the two men’s story never really got underway.
* * *
The next day.
“Aren’t you going home?”
Sera said to me while I was in the White Tiger Guild’s exclusive lodging.
Claiming she was bored being alone, Sera called her secretary over and dumped the criminal processing on them.
And then she followed me with a beer can in hand and even slept beside me.
This was the question that came up after we woke up and started chatting.
“My home is here, though?”
This place is too nice.
The blankets are soft, and it smells nice.
Most drinks were free, and breakfast could be eaten downstairs or ordered in.
If the rough otherworld dishes the chef served were a delicacy, this place offered truly classic, clean Korean food.
Aris had nothing but praise for it, too.
“Oh, can I take this blanket? I think Aris likes it too.”
“It’s fine, but at least say you’re taking it.”
“Heck yeah.”
“But are you seriously not going home? This is supposed to be my room, you know.”
Hmm. I did need to go back.
Even if it was fine for me, Aris was an outsider, so staying any longer felt a bit awkward.
“I’m telling you, my home is in the Empire.”
“What? Yumia... you didn’t have a house? Then where’s your hometown...?”
Aris, who was beside me, looked puzzled.
Why ask why I didn’t have a house?
Truly a noble question.
In that case, it was only natural to answer.
“It’s true I was born and raised here, but most people here don’t have houses.”
It almost looked like thunder and lightning were flashing behind Aris.
“You... don’t have houses?”
Come to think of it, what was the situation in the Empire again?
“Lies! Even commoners in the Empire have houses!”
“What!”
Getting a home is incredibly hard!
Of course, explaining that concept to Aris seemed a bit beyond me.
“You do have a house, though?”
“Huh?”
Did I have a house?
“That abandoned factory...”
Ah.
Right there.
I’d had it since back when I was active as an unlicensed hunter.
Some first-generation hunter had sold it to me cheap before leaving, and I’d used it well.
But.
“Why would I go there?”
In summer it’s unbearably hot, and in winter you have to get by with a single heater.
Attachment?
As if I’d have anything like that.
I only kept it because it was good for training.
Honestly, if you train in the middle of the neighborhood with a rusty sword, you’ll be treated like a lunatic and nothing else.
Even climbing a mountain gets you reported by hikers.
“Do you really think I’d stick around if the school wasn’t even giving me proper meals?”
Among food, clothing, and shelter, food can be handled by chewing on tree roots if need be.
Or by rummaging through the trash bins.
But then there was Reinhart’s overwhelming living environment.
It taught magic, the dorms were bigger than most apartments, and if you broke the training hall you’d be promoted to the next rank.
Reinhart is my home. End of story.
“They don’t even give you food?”
“Oh, I think there’s been a misunderstanding...”
Though, to be fair, maybe that was because the system was very unfriendly to me, an otherworlder.
“They should at least feed you.”
Sera nodded.
Of course, I had money now, and more importantly, the quality of the food had gone up absurdly.
Damn it, it’s the chef again.
I can’t help but be grateful.
“Usually, a sponsor would be attached... but if you come from a place like this, like Yumia, I guess there isn’t even time for a sponsor to step in...”
Sera was staring at Aris with a look that said, So you were going around not even feeding our kid?
But this wasn’t Aris’s fault.
“No, I know this is sudden, but where exactly is this place!?”
“It’s another world.”
“Pardon?”
“Ah, was the dictionary definition not clear?”
“Who would understand an explanation like that...”
Sera facepalmed.
“For someone in the magic world, isn’t this much mana basically upper A-rank? You really brought over someone like that without even explaining anything...”
Ah.
Come to think of it, Aris’s mana was also off the charts here.
I’d forgotten, what with seeing Karnarov, Isabel, and Adrian every day.
“I can go back, right?”
Aris grabbed me and shook me.
“Of course.”
Blink and she’d be in Reinhart.
“It’s not that I don’t trust Yumia, but...”
Hmm. That was understandable.
“It’s fine! If the gate breaks, you can just live here!”
“That is not fine at all!!”
“I said it’s fine.”
For now, I had to return to Reinhart by this afternoon.
There was a place Aris wanted to go, so we just had to visit that one spot and end today’s schedule.
* * *
[OO Bookstore]
The place we came to was a bookstore.
“Waaah! So many books!”
[[Blessing of Language] is active.]
For reference, everything Aris took in was being translated by the Blessing of Language.
“Ugh... books again.”
Thinking of Karnarov’s math assignments, I instinctively shrank back.
I, who hadn’t even flinched at Leokan, was being rattled by something like this...!
Since it’s come to this, I should throw an insanely difficult math text at Karnarov.
Drown in the curse of knowledge, Karnarov.
I chuckled and picked up a basket.
[fermat's last theorem, 7th edition.]
Nice, that’s a good one.
I’ll translate it into Imperial script only up to the point where there isn’t enough room left to write.
Of course, I also tossed in about ten notebooks that looked genuinely useful, not for messing around.
Since Adrian had emptied out the treasury’s liquor, I ought to give him some special souvenir from another world.
Aris looked over the books and asked me seriously.
“Yumia, how much of this would I need for unique magic?”
...Asking that meant...
“I’ve become interested in this knowledge.”
I wasn’t sure whether that was a good thing.
“How much money will it take? I’m willing to pay up to one gold from the money I’ve saved!”
One gold wouldn’t even cover it all.
“Even if you buy all of this, it won’t cost ten silver.”
I shouldn’t have said that.
Because Aris really did try to buy every single book in the store.
From basic Korean and English books to mathematical theory, picture books, art collections, and everything else.
“No, when are you supposed to learn all of this!”
“I’ll take them back to my family and have them translated! Vacation is starting soon, so I’ll have plenty of time!!”
The unfortunate part was that, thanks to the Blessing of Language, Aris had started to get a feel for Korean.
She looked like she’d learn it in no time even without me around.
“Even this formula, if applied right away, would make constructing magic circles much easier!”
Damn, she figured it out.
She figured out the really nasty thing I’d been reading as the wisdom of ancient sages... basically a formula exploit!
Damn.
As we headed to the bookstore checkout.
“H-How are you going to carry all that... no, how are you even holding it??”
The amount of books I was holding far exceeded what a normal human could manage.
Of course, my strength was no longer human, so it didn’t matter.
“Please ring these up.”
...The numbers adding up weren’t ordinary.
Damn.
It was obvious that the day Aris properly learned Korean and English, trouble would begin.
* * *
[You are attempting to enter another world.]
[Trait ???(???) activated. Imbalance tolerated.]
?
Some strange message had popped up.
Just as I turned toward the lecture building.
I saw Robert running.
“Robert?”
“Why are you in such a hurry?”
“What are you talking about? The potionology exam is today.”
“Whaaat?”
Ah.
I thought I’d arrived on time, but there was still a little time left.
“Why are you late?”
“I got the time wrong.”
Well, anyway, basic-to-intermediate potions were already guaranteed top-grade.
I’d said herb combinations were a pain and not memorized them, then got scolded by Aris and memorized them all.
As long as I wasn’t late, there was no problem.
But we had to go to the dorm now and grab our equipment too.
About ten minutes left.
Even if Aris started running now, it’d be close.
“Aris, let’s do that once more.”
“Huh? Yes!”
There was still room in the inventory for one person.
“Hey, Robert.”
Watching Robert pant as he ran toward the classroom, I put Aris into the inventory.
“We’re going ahead.”
“What...!”
It was time to test my A-rank agility.
I lightly pushed off the floor with my foot.
I hadn’t even meant to run, but when I came to, a fierce wind was parting my hair as it passed by.
Robert became a dot in an instant.