Chapter 47
Kim Sooho cleaned up the shop.
Watching him comb his hair with wind magic was quite an amusing experience.
A little while later, he came back carrying the two coffee cups that were left.
I familiarly lifted my cup and took a sip of the pitch-black liquid.
Black coffee, the first thing I’d ever brought to my lips after ending up in this body.
“……Ugh.”
The moment the coffee touched my tongue, I failed to keep my expression in check.
Damn, it’s bitter. Too bitter.
The taste was so bitter it seemed to numb my tongue, and my brows twisted on their own.
It used to be something I drank like water.
But now I couldn’t swallow it down at all.
Had my taste buds turned completely childlike too?
Kim Sooho, who hadn’t missed my change in expression, let out a quiet laugh.
“Ha-ha.”
Kim Sooho seemed to have sorted out his thoughts to some extent while brewing the coffee.
“I guess I have no choice but to believe it. That you’re... the newbie.”
Kim Sooho seemed to be accepting the unbelievable reality.
The fact that I, in the form of a little girl, was that mysterious ranker and mage who had shaken the internet and the world.
But there was still a faint hint of confusion in his voice.
As we kept talking, he seemed to keep slipping into other thoughts.
Ah, I can’t stand how awkward this is.
Before getting into the serious talk, I tried some light small talk.
“By the way, about that comment about becoming a mage.”
“……Huh?”
“You still seem to be keeping it up, so what’s the point of it?”
My question made Kim Sooho’s eyes waver.
I could somehow tell that he felt incredibly sorry toward me.
I couldn’t figure out why at all...
Kim Sooho seemed to choose his words a few times, then changed the subject.
“...Come to think of it, did you really eat dirt for 30 days? Why? Just from seeing one comment of mine?”
“I thought I could make the top post.”
“That really was the reason?”
“Well, if I happened to awaken while doing it, that’d be nice.”
“What about climbing the Tower? That must have been terrifying and hard....”
“No, not really? It wasn’t anything special. I’m just overflowing with magic talent.”
“No, even so. Haa.... what am I supposed to do?”
Anyone could tell he was hiding something.
But I had no intention of digging too deeply.
Thanks to him, I’d become a mage, after all.
In a sense, the man in front of me was my benefactor.
If he’s an S-rank Hunter, it’d be natural for him to have one or two secrets he can’t tell others.
‘Looks like he’s really uncomfortable...’
In truth, I actually felt quite at ease with the person behind the nickname Beetle.
How many times had we talked in the gallery by now?
But the actual Kim Sooho in front of me was obviously very awkward and uncomfortable.
He looked like someone who had no idea how to treat me.
He even looked like someone who had done something wrong to me.
I mean, if I were him, I’d probably be flustered too if a real middle school girl showed up at a community meetup. That must be it.
I casually set down my coffee cup and leaned back in my chair.
I sat there, dangling my legs and watching him.
Kim Sooho was stiff as a board.
He was holding his mug with both hands, but he wasn’t drinking the coffee.
He just kept looking back and forth between my face, the coffee cup, and the window outside.
Every time my eyes met his, he would startle and look away.
Sighing, I said,
“Hey.”
“Uh, yeah?”
“Just relax. Relax.”
“Ah, sorry. I will.”
He gave an awkward smile and straightened up, but he still didn’t look relaxed at all.
The awkward silence fell again.
What broke the silence was Kim Sooho’s dry cough.
“Ahem!”
Whoooosh!
The moment he coughed without meaning to, wind swept through the café.
CRACK!
The small table in front of me split in half.
At the same time, the two cups of coffee shot up into the air.
‘He’s absolutely wrecking the café...’
But not a single drop of coffee touched me.
Just before the hot coffee could spill onto me, a thin sand barrier automatically formed around my body and perfectly blocked the liquid.
Kim Sooho stared blankly at the sight.
Soon he came to his senses, and his face turned deathly pale.
He hurriedly came over and checked on my condition.
“A-are you okay? You’re not hurt, are you?”
“Do S-ranks break tables just by coughing?”
Kim Sooho’s face turned red this time at my teasing remark.
“No, it’s just that... I really don’t usually do this...”
“Can I post this on the gallery?”
“Huh?”
“I met S-rank Kim Sooho, and because I was so cute, he got nervous and shook so badly he wrecked the café... Something like that? I feel like just one photo could make the top post.”
“...Pfft. That’s right.”
Only then did the tension leave Kim Sooho’s shoulders.
The stiff, frozen expression on his face finally softened.
It was a real laugh, not an awkward smile.
He tossed aside the cautious attitude he’d been showing me a moment ago and grumbled like a friend he’d known for years.
Only then did he go back to being Beetle.
“No, really, I’m just too flustered. You looked so different from what I’d imagined.”
“...What kind of image were you imagining?”
“Of course I thought you’d be about my age. I never imagined someone like you would be climbing the Tower.”
“It was like going to a PriPara meetup and finding a real elementary school kid there?”
“How old were you when you first got on the gallery? Haa... seriously, what is this?”
Kim Sooho rubbed his forehead.
Watching that, I quietly stood up from my seat.
After all, the coffee I was going to drink was gone anyway.
“Shall we head to the Association now? It’d be awkward to stay too long.”
“Ah, shall we?”
At my words, Kim Sooho stood up from his seat.
We walked side by side through the empty street toward the Hunter Association building.
In the unreal silence created by the S-rank barrier, only our footsteps echoed.
The Hunter Association building was empty too.
Kim Sooho familiarly led me inside, to the area for registration and measurement.
“There’s no staff here to do the measurement, so I’ll have to do it myself.”
Kim Sooho said as he stood in front of the huge measuring equipment and operated the terminal.
Complex codes flashed rapidly across the screen.
“Then, shall we begin the registration procedure?”
Kim Sooho asked, looking back at me.
“Before that, do you have anything that can serve as ID? Like a student ID or something...”
I took out a stiff card from inside my clothes as if I’d been waiting for that, and set it down in front of him with a tap.
It was a resident registration card.
Kim Sooho’s eyebrows twitched.
He looked back and forth several times between the photo on the ID and my actual face.
“...An adult? You?”
The disbelief in his voice was blatant.
I felt a slight pang of guilt, but I kept my expression as bold as possible and said,
“I’m underdeveloped.”
“Haa....”
Kim Sooho let out a sigh for what had to be the umpteenth time today.
He didn’t ask any more questions and scanned my ID into the terminal.
Once he entered the name and resident registration number on the screen, related information soon appeared.
“That’s a name registered in the missing-person database, isn’t it?”
Kim Sooho muttered quietly.
Tsk, so this won’t work after all?
He seemed to notice at once that the ID was fake.
His gaze turned sharp again as it came back to me.
“Where did you get this?”
“...Anyway, just do it with this. I can’t use my real name.”
My answer was simple.
No excuses, no explanation—just a request.
Kim Sooho stared at me in silence for a moment.
His gaze drifted to the empty air for a moment, as if he were remembering someone from the distant past.
A silence that went on for a long time.
At last, he threw out a meaningful line.
“Yeah... anyway, surviving comes first. By any means necessary...”
He let out a deep sigh and then looked straight at me, as if he had made up his mind.
“Fine. I’ll do it. But don’t misunderstand. I’m not just going to listen to your ridiculous request for nothing.”
Kim Sooho placed my fake ID on the terminal and started manipulating the system with his S-rank authority.
“I can’t let you trust your life to something this sloppy. I’ll make you a real one myself, one nobody can doubt.”
After he made a long round of calls to a few places, he handed the resident registration card back to me.
“Instead, don’t ever go back to the broker who made this. Going down into the darkness once is enough.... And now that you’ll even have A-rank qualifications, there’s even less reason to go there, right?”
Ditch the broker?
Hmm, that’s a problem.
Kim Sooho continued.
“And one more thing. If you register with this, your real name will disappear forever. Is that okay?”
I nodded without hesitation.
Just like that, my new identity was decided.
From now on, my name was Kim Hanbyeol.
Probably the name of someone who had already died.
Well, this name wouldn’t be made public for a while anyway.
The identity registration process ended more anticlimactically than I’d expected.
All that remained was the official test proving eligibility for an A-rank Hunter.
Kim Sooho took me and moved into the room.
As we entered the huge room, all sorts of measuring devices of unknown purpose were glimmering coldly inside.
“Here, we’ll measure your various stats, total mana, skill output, and other comprehensive data.”
Kim Sooho explained, pointing to the equipment one by one.
I thought for a moment before speaking.
“Um, should I hide some of my power?”
“Huh?”
“No, if I go too hard, that might cause trouble. Wouldn’t it be better to aim for the A-rank cutoff or something like that?”
At my words, Kim Sooho fell into thought for a moment, then shook his head.
“No, there’s no need. First I need to know roughly how high your maximum is so I can deal with it too.... I’ll handle the data myself, so don’t worry and go all out.”
At his words, I felt at ease.
The test began with a simple health check and physical ability measurement.
“Your health is perfectly fine. Thank goodness.... Good grief, your strength stat is 160?”
“How much is that?”
“About average for an A-rank warrior? Must be because of the all-stat bonus.... A mage with stats like this?”
“Hehe. Look forward to it. My mana stat will be even more impressive.”
And at last, the long-awaited final test.
The time for mana measurement had come.
We stood before a massive machine with a crystal sphere embedded in it.
Complex magic circles were carved around the sphere.
Playfully, I grinned and said,
“If I get measured with this, won’t the device break and explode?”
At my cliché-filled joke, Kim Sooho also snorted with a laugh and replied,
“Go ahead and try.”
I waited and placed my small hand on top of the crystal sphere.
Then I gathered every last bit of mana flowing inside me and poured it into the machine all at once.
Wuuuuung—!
The crystal sphere vibrated violently and began emitting light.
A flash so intense I couldn’t open my eyes burst forth.
BEEEEEP—!
A sharp warning alarm rang out from the entire machine.
At last, cracks began to spread across the surface of the sphere.
BOOM—!
The next moment, with a tremendous roar, the crystal sphere shattered to pieces.
Countless shards flew in every direction, but I wasn’t hurt at all thanks to the barrier.
Black smoke began rising from the machine.
I admired my masterpiece with a satisfied expression.
‘This is it. This is the one. As expected, this is the level it should be.’
I pulled out my phone to preserve this historic moment.
It was the perfect chance to upload to the Mage Gallery.
That was just as I was about to take a picture.
“Puhahaha!”
Laughter burst out beside me.
When I turned my head, Kim Sooho was holding his stomach and laughing hard.
It was the first time I’d ever seen him laugh that hard.
“Why, why? What’s so funny?”
At my question, he barely managed to swallow his laughter and said,
“That... I kind of left the limit set low on purpose.”
“What? Why? Why?”
“Because I figured you’d like this kind of thing.”
Ah, no....
I could feel blood rushing to my face.
So my cool protagonist act was actually just a little play?
Sudden embarrassment surged over me.
Seeing my red face, Kim Sooho finally couldn’t hold it in and burst out laughing again.