Chapter 34
“I’m full..”
“Eve, did you eat well?”
“Ah, yes! It was really delicious. Thank you.”
“Now, Eve. Give your older sister a proper bow!”
“A, a proper bow….”
That’s a word I haven’t heard since leaving the orphanage. Back when important people came by the orphanage to take promotional photos, they only made the kids under fourteen do it. I’m 27 years old now, for crying out loud.
Kim Chaea may be much younger than me... or maybe not, I don’t know, but there’s no way I’m doing a proper bow at this age!! Ah!!
ㅡbow
“Thank you..”
“Ooh~ That’s right, that’s right. I’ll buy you another one next time, okay?”
“Yup..”
At least I got to eat something tasty. It was definitely worth the price. Still, nothing can beat the undisputed dessert king, Seolraim Cookies & Cream. There’s just no other product in that price range that tastes that good.
“Right, come to think of it, you said Maxi contacted you.”
“Ah, yes. I got a DM through SNS.”
“What? Really?”
Chaea unnie doesn’t use the Gallery, so she probably wouldn’t know. I hadn’t posted it anywhere else either—I only cut out part of the screenshot and put it up on the Gallery. Since Chaea unnie had been saying she really wanted to see it, I turned on SNS and showed her the DMs Maxi and I had exchanged, and then—
“Wow, it’s real. You even exchanged photos?”
“What, it’s real? I want to see too.”
Even Han Dohee, who was driving, reacted in surprise while looking at the photos Maxi and I had exchanged.
“Hey, but from Eve’s point of view, isn’t that a little... too revealing?”
“T, this much is fine….”
“Hmm, come to think of it, Eve is pretty grown-up.”
“Is that so? Eve seems really young for her age, though.”
Since Dohee, who usually uses the Gallery, remembers my old posts, while Chaea unnie doesn’t know the me from back then, their reactions can’t help but differ. Chaea unnie would probably be shocked if she saw the posts I wrote back then; they’re all deleted now, so she can’t look at them anymore.
“Eve, what is this picture? How can you photograph such a pretty face like this!”
“I-is it that weird..?”
“It feels like a photo some forty-something guy who’s never taken a selfie would upload to a random chatroom.”
“Ugh.”
I did actually feel that a little. It’s not like I’d ever taken a selfie before; my face wasn’t impressive enough to be worth preserving in a record.
“Now, look here. Never take selfies from below. Got it?”
“Gasp, I see.”
“Should I turn on a filter? Want to try the glitter one?”
“Glitter..?”
I was wondering what in the world this glitter filter I’d never heard of even was, when Chaea unnie took the phone and fiddled with it, and something appeared.
‘Ah, this.’
One of the filters men absolutely hate the most. The mysterious thing with white dots all over the face. I have no idea why people even use it.
“Hmm, I guess you might actually be prettier without it, Eve.”
“Hehe….”
* * * * *
“Get home safe! Ophilia too~!”
“Thank you for today.”
“Eve, get inside quick! The unnies are leaving!”
“D-Dohee unnie, have a safe trip home too!”
“Don’t forget the Gate in three days! You remember, right~?”
“Ah, yes!”
Judging by what Chaea unnie said, it seems a foregone conclusion that she’ll be included in the raid-team schedule three days from now. If that’s the case, it does put my mind at ease a little.
It’s a little unsettling not having Ophilia around, but it’s fine! I’ve been doing just fine without Ophilia until now, haven’t I? Ophilia only came into my life a few days ago, surprisingly enough. It feels like I’ve known Ophilia forever, though.
“Ophilia, the desserts were delicious, right?”
“Indeed. Sweets made by combining well-refined ingredients and technique with a home appliance are splendid.”
The kitchen Ophilia used to live in...? Or rather, the kitchen in Ophilia’s memories was ancient beyond ancient, so making desserts there was probably much harder. The ingredients might have been shabby, too.
“It’s a shame the house doesn’t have an oven. Even if we bought one, there isn’t really anywhere suitable to put it.”
“Sorry the place is so cramped..”
“No, Princess. You did more than enough.”
“Huh.”
I didn’t really know what exactly I’d done, but if it was good by Ophilia’s standards, then it was good.
“It looks like we’ll be able to move to a new place soon, so I don’t think you need to worry too much.”
“What!? Already?!”
“Yes.”
“A-and the money..?”
“I’ve started to get the hang of stocks to some extent.”
So Ophilia made that much money even before really getting a proper handle on things? Once Ophilia gets a handle on it, how much would that make in a day?
“Where are we going..?”
“It’s hard to get precise information from photos alone, so we’re scheduled to go check the interior in three days. There are several candidates, but our basic rule is not to go outside the capital area.”
“I see….”
Well, any normal house is fine by me. Honestly, when I was sleeping on a mattress, it was awkward having Ophilia kneel beside me all night with eyes closed.
It’d be nice if it weren’t a one-room apartment and I could sleep by myself, but I probably still don’t have enough money to buy a proper house in Seoul....
Ever since Ophilia and I got our own proper legal identities, our bank accounts were split and all the money we had got transferred to Ophilia’s side. She says she’ll keep giving me 250,000 won every month, but it’s still a little sad..
“On top of that, we’re planning to buy a car of our own, but I still haven’t gotten my driver’s license.”
“A license? Huh, I see.”
I’ve lived 27 years and still haven’t gotten my license. I don’t even have the money to buy a car, so why would I spend hundreds of thousands of won on driving school?
“Did Ophilia practice driving?”
“Do you mean me?”
“Hmm.. come to think of it, maybe you don’t need practice.”
Ophilia feels like a super-powerful AI, so even if 500 difficult legal questions came up, the written test wouldn’t be any match for Ophilia at all. And Ophilia would probably be amazing at the practical driving test too. I want to see Ophilia drive.
* * * * *
“You guys! The Princess is back!”
ㅡclick!
ㅡbeep!
After coming home, I greeted the golems too. I washed my hands, brushed my teeth, changed into indoor clothes (just pajamas, really), and sat down in front of the computer.
There was that small soft ball Ophilia bought for Doggy last time, and it looked like Minyum and Suri had been tossing it to each other and having fun with it. Somehow I felt a little guilty, like I’m their master, but I came back alone after eating something tasty.
“12,000 followers... still not enough for the next rank.”
Ophilia said it’d be hard to raise it from B-rank onward. Was it that you needed around 25,000 followers? On SNS, follower count is basically combat power, after all. I like how straightforward it is.
I was looking around to see how high other people’s followers were.
“Whoa, Maxi has a ton of followers.”
Maxi’s account has a staggering 4 million followers. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that one-tenth of South Korea is following Maxi.
I get happy all day if I just get ten upvotes from the Gallery regulars, so what would it feel like to have 4 million people gathered to read my posts?
“I’m jealous.. That’s what a superstar is.”
“Princess, you’ll be able to achieve it soon enough.”
“Is that so….”
To be honest, I still couldn’t feel it. Me, with SNS followers in the millions? That sounded completely impossible. Should I go for a Mister List kind of vibe? Or maybe... if I did something like being a Minecraft YouTuber, it might work.
How many does Chae-rin unnie have?
Chae-rin unnie is one of only two S-rank hunters in Korea. The Ohseong Group’s reputation is already enormous to begin with, and Chae-rin unnie is also objectively gorgeous and very popular, after all.
“Gasp..”
SNS followers: 6.8 million. More than Maxi? Could that even be a real number? On the Gallery she definitely felt like the famous older sister from the neighborhood. I can’t believe she was such a global star.
“If I got Chae-rin unnie’s account.. would I rocket straight to S-rank….”
“That wouldn’t be because of Princess’s goodwill, so it wouldn’t work that way.”
“Hmph. I was just saying.”
Anyway, I was still a long way from becoming a global superstar. Come to think of it, among hunters, who has the most SNS followers?
ㅡtap tap tap
[인셍안망헷다 : Hey, who among hunters has the most SNS followers
I’ll try to beat that guy]
-Ciortos : Arjun lol
ㄴ 인셍안망헷다 : For real? It’s Arjun?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ : Do you think Alhwang’s some kind of joke right now?
ㄴ 인셍안망헷다 : I didn’t even say anything yet;;
ㄴ Ciortos : You can’t beat Alhwang, yeah..
On the Gallery, they just call him Alhwang, or the Curry Emperor for short. His full name is Arjun Reddy.
He’s the Indian hunter ranked 7th in the world.
Wasn’t it during this Manchuria suppression campaign that he turned down China’s offer of 1.5 billion won a day and went off to dance in Bollywood instead?
“Ah, this post.”
[알황의카레 : Arjun Reddy’s current status after turning down China’s 7.5 million yuan (1.5 billion won) a day offer ㄷㄷ.jpg
Dancing while filming an Indian movie with a total box-office gross of $900,000 (1.3 billion won) ㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
-ㅇㅇ : lol, this pic reeks of curry
ㄴ알황의카레 : Say “curry scent,” you bastardㅋ
-김흑간 : As expected of Alhwang, yeah.. a dragon born from the Ganges ㄷㄷ
ㄴㅇㅇ : The shit smell is gonna be insane, seriously
ㄴ 엘르엘 : He really knows how to corpse-farm
-가갤입단 : Does this guy really not make any money?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ : Alhwang’s wallet has 3 trillion dollars in it right now
ㄴ가갤입단 : Damn, I should worry about myself
“Arjun.. SNS….”
I searched and Arjun’s SNS came up. His follower count was a whopping….
“800 million..? How can he have 800 million followers..?”
India may be huge in terms of population, but 800 million followers is still a bit much. Could it be something mandated by law, like Indian accounts are required to follow Arjun, or something….
“Sigh, I guess I’ll never be able to take first place, even if I die.”
Honestly, I never planned on being number one anyway. 800 million is just ridiculous. Even if the whole of South Korea followed me, it’d still be impossible.
Besides that, if you were talking about people with lots of followers...
“Ah, Utaha.”
If you’re a pretty Japanese high-school girl S-rank hunter, you’ve basically got all the ingredients to be popular right there.
Even in those hunter fight highlight Reels that occasionally pop up on SNS, she feels like she shows up almost every time.
“8 million? Less than I thought.”
Is it because of Arjun? Eight million is a huge number, but... why does it suddenly look so small?
“Oh….”
She is pretty, I’ll give her that. There are a lot of photos taken in studios and such, and Japan really hypes famous hunters like this. With a slightly idol-like vibe.
Of course, Maxi is prettier.
“Aren’t you making an account, Ophilia?”
“My account is fine. What we need is Princess’s name recognition.”
“Then can I post Ophilia pictures on my account?”
“That... why?”
“Hmm..”
Well, I guess I do look pretty young. Of course I’m an adult, but the way I look says otherwise.
You could say I need a little sex appeal to sell, I guess. But if I did that, I’d get banned immediately... Overseas is much more sensitive about that sort of thing.
That said, it’s not like I’m planning to sell Ophilia’s photos to boost my SNS followers....
“Ophilia is super pretty too, so if I post pictures, wouldn’t I become more famous?”
“Is that so.”
“Or maybe not….”
* * * * *
Two days later. The day before the raid team’s Gate entry.
“Princess. I’ll be busy running around tomorrow, so would you like to give it a try?”
“Ah, you mean that?”
The thing where Minyum and Ophilia swap mana stones. Now that my command issuance rank is C+ too, I should probably be able to do it.
“Hmm.. Minyum, come here!”
ㅡclack!
Minyum’s steps were light, as if she were very happy. Well, if I were a golem too, I’d probably be thrilled if someone said they’d give me premium mana stones.
“Hmm, how should I issue the command? About how much?”
“It should be fine to give Minyum about three-fifths of the mana stones I have with me.”
“Gasp, that’s a lot.”
“It’s to keep Princess safe.”
“Hmm.. yes! Got it!”
First, I took a deep breath. Even if I messed up, it probably wouldn’t cause any huge problems, but this was dealing with expensive mana stones that hardly ever even come onto the market. I had to focus.
“Ophilia’s mana stones.. uh….”
“60 percent.”
“S-sixty percent! To Minyum!”
ㅡflash..!
It had been a while since I’d used magic. As the bodies of Ophilia and Minyum, who had been kneeling side by side in front of me, began to glow at the same time, the light started to move as if Ophilia’s mana were flowing into Minyum.
“U,wooo..!”
After about a minute of flashing, Ophilia’s form emerged first, but….
“Eh..?”
“It seems to have gone well.”
“O-Ophilia..!”
Ophilia turned into a grade-schooler..!