Her body was still faintly steaming, which meant she’d apparently just stepped out of a hot shower, and every curve of her toned figure was on full display.
"Aahaha~~ How many free shows is that today? You must be having a pretty lucky day, ’Manager.’"
I squeezed my eyes shut and pressed a hand against my forehead.
What the hell is happening?
I stood there for a moment, trying to gather my scattered thoughts while Ruby seemed far more entertained by my reaction than she had any right to be.
"By the way, is it okay if I call you Manager?" she asked, tilting her head with a playful smile. "Since you’re going to be managing us from now on, right? Hmm?"
"Ruby," I said, forcing my voice to stay level. "We haven’t finished discussing what just happened."
"Geez. You look all cool and composed, but you’re actually this petty?"
She turned her head toward the other woman.
"What do you think, Madness?"
"...Ruby!"
Unfortunately.
Really, truly unfortunately.
This mission was not going to get off to a smooth start.
◆ ◆ ◆
"Do we even really need clothes?" Ruby continued, apparently deciding the visibly throbbing vein on my forehead wasn’t worth acknowledging. "Since this is our first time meeting each other, wouldn’t it be nicer to face one another honestly? Without hiding anything? Just like before? Hmm?"
"As if that could ever be considered nice..." I muttered.
Fortunately, the initial disaster of our skin-toned introduction had eventually come to an end.
Now we were actually sitting across from each other properly.
Fully clothed.
Thank God.
...Couldn’t we just erase everything that happened before this and pretend our first meeting started now?
I let out a long, suffering sigh.
"Let’s start with introductions. We haven’t even properly exchanged names yet."
"Okay! Then I’ll go first..."
"My name is Audrey Winter."
A cool, composed voice smoothly cut Ruby off.
The woman sitting across from me continued as if nothing had happened.
"As you may already know, during my time as an active Hunter, I specialized in freezing magic, usually manifested in the form of bullets."
Audrey was now dressed in a sharp black suit beneath a long coat, and the difference between her current appearance and the naked woman who had apparently destroyed a bathroom door a few minutes ago was almost jarring.
She looked refined.
Composed.
The kind of woman who could walk into a room, say absolutely nothing, and still make everyone present wonder whether they were about to be killed.
Honestly, she looked less like a Hunter and more like some high-ranking mafia executive.
"...Cutting in line, huh?"
Ruby gave Audrey an impish grin before turning back toward me.
"I’m Ruby. As you can probably tell, I’m the physical type. I usually use whatever weapon I can get my hands on."
The difference between the two of them was almost absurd.
Audrey sat with perfect posture in her sharp suit and long coat, carrying herself with a polished elegance that made her seem cold and distant.
Ruby, on the other hand, wore a white crop top and hot pants so short they barely qualified as shorts. She had absolutely no interest in subtlety. Everything about her, from her clothes to the way she moved, carried the same bold and openly provocative energy.
Just looking at them, they couldn’t have seemed more different.
One was polished elegance.
The other was raw, in-your-face sexuality.
Yet there was one thing they had in common.
Their attitudes.
Neither of them had shown even the slightest embarrassment about walking around naked in front of me.
Actually, it was more accurate to say they hadn’t cared about my presence at all.
Well, I don’t really care either.
As far as I’m concerned, they’re simply two people who need to do their jobs without causing trouble.
Nothing more.
I pushed the lingering images from earlier as far out of my mind as possible and pulled out two business cards.
"Elias Gallagher." New chapters come out on g.com first.
I handed one card to each of them.
"Guild Master of... well, from now on, I’ll be responsible for managing the two of you and assisting in your reinstatement as S-Rank Hunters. When addressing me..."
"Manager, right?"
Ruby immediately snatched the card from my hand before I’d even finished speaking.
"It’s Manager."
Audrey gave a small nod, as if the matter had already been decided.
"...Call me whatever you want."
Honestly, I didn’t have much of an argument.
I wasn’t formally bringing them into my Guild. The government and the Association had simply dumped the responsibility of managing this penal unit onto me.
If anything, "Manager" fit my current role better than "Guild Master."
"Alright, here’s the plan."
I set the matter aside and moved on.
"The three of us will use the accommodations provided by the government. Your living expenses will be covered through the activity support funds we’ll receive. As for the rehabilitation plan..."
"But hey, Manager?"
Ruby suddenly raised her hand.
The expression on her face was so innocent that it immediately made me suspicious.
She looked less like a former S-Rank criminal and more like a troublemaking middle schooler who had just thought of a way to derail the entire class.
"I have a question."
Audrey remained quiet, listening from her seat with her legs elegantly crossed.
I gestured toward Ruby.
"Go ahead."
"Couldn’t we just kill you, Manager, and run away?"
Her smile didn’t move even slightly.
I didn’t hesitate.
"Yeah. I guess you could."
Silence.
A heavy, almost awkward silence settled over the hotel room.
Ruby stared at me.
"...That’s it?"
"That’s it."
I leaned back slightly.
"For me, and for both of you."
Honestly, I’d expected the question.
If anything, it was better that she asked directly instead of pretending to cooperate while secretly planning to stab me in the back later.
"You have two options," I continued calmly. "You can live relatively freely in society while working as Hunters under my supervision."
I held up one finger.
"Or you can run away now."
A second finger went up.
"Enjoy a brief taste of freedom, get hunted down by S-Rank Hunters dispatched from overseas, get dragged back into a cell, and spend the rest of your lives on death row."
"Hmm..."
Ruby tapped her chin thoughtfully.
"That’s a real dilemma..."
"Do you hate the idea of becoming Hunters again that much?"
"It’s not that I hate being a Hunter."
For once, her answer came without an immediate joke.
"I just really dislike having someone else restrict what I can and can’t do."
"I concur with that sentiment."
Audrey spoke from beside her, her voice as calm as ever.
"Although I would personally stop any unaesthetic act, such as killing the Manager and attempting to flee..."
The barrel was already aimed directly at Ruby’s side.
Ruby didn’t even flinch.
If anything, her smile became wider.
"See?"
She casually pointed her thumb toward Audrey.
"She says the same thing. A Manager who gets to live as a completely free person, unlike us, probably wouldn’t understand."
"I have exactly two things to say to that."
I raised two fingers.
"First, you shouldn’t have committed crimes in the first place."
Ruby’s smile twitched.
"Second, I was forced into this position too."
"Aahaha~~ What’s this?"
Ruby laughed lightly.
"So you didn’t commit any crime, Manager, but you’re still stuck in the same boat as us? That’s pretty ironic."
"...And that’s precisely why I have no intention of restricting you more than necessary."
My gaze moved from Ruby to Audrey.
"As long as we can fill the current gap in S-Rank Hunter personnel, and as long as neither of you causes trouble for ordinary citizens, that’s enough."
Both women fell quiet.
I let the words settle.
Of course, they didn’t really have any better options.
But there was still a difference between forcing someone to work through threats and getting them to accept the situation themselves.
If they could find even a little motivation to cooperate, things would be easier for all of us.
"I’m in fav..."
"I have no objections."
Audrey smoothly cut Ruby off again.
Her pistol disappeared just as easily as it had appeared.
"From the beginning, this level of restriction is negligible compared to incarceration."
"Hey, Madness."
Ruby’s smile sharpened.
"Are you planning to keep cutting me off every time I try to speak? Hmm?"
Audrey slowly turned toward her.
"...If you continue calling me by that aesthetically offensive nickname," she said, her voice dropping several degrees colder, "I will put a hole in that small head of yours to compensate for its profound lack of beauty."
"Oh my, really?"
Ruby leaned forward, beaming.
Her forehead moved toward the space where Audrey’s gun had been moments earlier.
"Thanks. I was just feeling like I didn’t have enough breathing holes. Could you make it nice and pretty for me?"
She pointed at the center of her forehead.
"Right here?"
"...Enough. Both of you."
Whether my command actually had any effect was debatable.
Ruby continued smiling brightly, looking almost disappointed that Audrey hadn’t actually pulled the trigger.
Audrey, meanwhile, stared at her for another moment before finally glancing back at me.
She let out a faint, disdainful sigh and lowered her hand completely.
The immediate tension faded.
Not completely.
The two women were still staring at each other.
It was less like the problem had been solved and more like both sides had temporarily agreed to stop trying to start a war.
Which, considering the people I was dealing with, was probably the best result I could hope for.