The fitting session began.
First outfit.
Wide-cut navy slacks with a black shirt.
The only pants in the store that actually fit.
Two buttons undone on the shirt, sleeves rolled halfway up.
A slim belt cinched at the waist.
I-sol let out a gasp.
“Wow, this is it! This is perfect for you, unni.”
Da-hong’s reaction was lukewarm.
Second outfit.
An ivory linen jacket with wide-leg trousers.
Clean and put-together.
“It’s fine, but it kind of overlaps with what you were already wearing, doesn’t it?”
“I suppose.”
Third outfit.
A black long skirt with a cream sleeveless top.
A calm, composed combination.
Her tall frame and expressionless face brought out a quiet maturity.
I-sol clapped her hands together.
“Wow, that’s genuinely gorgeous. Such a soft vibe. What do you think, Se-ha?”
“Huh? Oh… yeah, I guess.”
Se-ha had been staring at Da-hong’s transformation in a daze and fumbled when I-sol’s question caught him off guard.
Fourth outfit.
An ivory turtleneck with a deep khaki trench coat.
When Da-hong stepped out, I-sol narrowed her eyes.
“You look really intellectual. I think glasses would suit you too.”
“Not bad, I suppose.”
Mid-answer, Da-hong’s gaze drifted somewhere else.
I-sol noticed.
“Unni, what have you been staring at this whole time?”
Da-hong didn’t answer.
I-sol followed her line of sight and spotted a colorful donut shop tucked into the far corner.
“…Unni, do you want a donut?”
“Yes.”
I-sol blinked.
For someone with such a sharp, imposing face, she was actually kind of adorable.
I-sol jabbed Se-ha in the ribs.
“What are you doing, Summoner? Unni says she wants a donut.”
“…”
Se-ha reluctantly fished out his card.
***
A large truck sat parked along the roadside.
From inside the double-sealed steel cargo hold came a low, rumbling growl.
Beside it, two men in work clothes were smoking.
“All done?”
“Yeah. Five total. Sprayed the sedative, so they should calm down soon.”
Clang!
As if in response, sharp claws shot through the bars of the cage inside the hold.
“Five hellhounds is quite a haul.”
“The Academy placed the order. Said it’s for first-semester combat training.”
One of the men exhaled a stream of smoke.
“Hellhounds are C-rank, aren’t they? They’re unleashing C-ranks on students?”
“They’ve been weakened. Sedatives cut their mana output in half.”
“Still, C-rank is C-rank.”
The man muttered uneasily.
His colleague shrugged.
“That’s why it’s the top academy in Korea, isn’t it? I hear the students there can hold their own against actual Hunters these days.”
“Really?”
Clang—!
The cargo hold shuddered again.
“Ugh, look how agitated they are. Think it’s the cigarettes?”
“Probably the smell of fire. Their sense of smell is ten times sharper than a dog’s.”
The man tossed his cigarette butt to the ground with a grunt of annoyance.
“Let’s get moving.”
“Yeah.”
The two climbed into the cab.
A moment later, the engine turned over and the truck slowly pulled away.
Some time later, the truck eased into the city center.
The hellhounds were all slumped limp, sedated into a stupor.
Then.
Sniff.
One of them twitched its nose.
Sniff, sniff.
“…Grr?”
The hellhound sniffed a few more times, then slowly raised its head.
“…!!!”
Its eyes snapped wide open.
“Hmm, hm-hmm~.”
The driver, completely oblivious to what was happening in the cargo hold, steered the truck deeper into the city.
***
The three of them finished shopping and stepped out of the department store.
Da-hong walked eating a donut, I-sol strolling lightly beside her.
Se-ha followed behind the two of them, carrying two shopping bags.
“Is it good?”
“You like donuts?”
“I like anything that tastes good. There’s nothing to eat in hell.”
“So you came from hell….”
I-sol murmured, sounding genuinely fascinated.
Whether the place Da-hong came from was actually what humans called hell wasn’t entirely certain.
Da-hong just called it that on her own.
But if it wasn’t hell, what else could it be?
So Da-hong decided not to bother correcting I-sol’s assumption.
That was when it happened.
SCREECH!!
CRASH!
A sharp sound of friction and a collision rang out from somewhere in the distance.
Se-ha and I-sol turned their heads at the same time.
Two blocks away, along the main road.
A large truck had plowed into a roadside tree and come to a stop.
The driver’s door swung open and the driver came stumbling out at a run.
“Monster escape! Hellhounds loose! Everyone get away!”
Clang!
Then the cargo hold burst open as if the door had been torn off, and dark shapes came pouring out.
“GRRRR—!”
Black bodies standing waist-high.
Flames licking up from each paw.
Smoke curling from their mouths.
Eyes burning red like molten lava.
Hellhounds.
Five of them.
“BARK!”
The hellhounds scrambled to their feet from the asphalt and scattered in every direction.
The people around them screamed and fled.
“Monsters!!”
“Run—!”
“Is there a Hunter anywhere!?”
“Oh no!”
I-sol quickly drew her wooden sword from the scabbard on her back.
“Se-ha! You handle the evacuation!”
“Huh? O-okay!”
Se-ha set down the shopping bags and sprinted toward the civilians.
“Everyone, over here! Come this way! Stay calm, please!”
Seeing Se-ha begin directing the evacuation, I-sol picked up her pace.
Target: the nearest hellhound.
I-sol caught up to it easily, gripped her wooden sword short, and brought it down hard against the side of the hellhound’s head.
CRACK!
“YELP!”
The hellhound tumbled sideways.
It scrambled back up immediately, but I-sol’s follow-up finished it.
“One.”
I-sol steadied her breathing and scanned for the next target.
*Over there.*
Two of them were cutting across the main road at a sprint.
I-sol ran again.
“Ahhh!”
A civilian spotted a hellhound charging toward them and collapsed to the ground.
But the hellhound didn’t pounce on the fallen person—it didn’t even slow down, veering to the side and running past.
I-sol caught up to the hellhound in the same moment and brought her wooden sword down into its flank.
“Two!”
CRACK!
Lava-like blood splattered across the pavement.
“Th-thank you…!”
“Get moving, that way!”
“Y-yes!”
I-sol, having cleanly bisected the hellhound with her wooden sword, caught her breath.
“…?”
Something was off.
The hellhounds were running past people.
*What’s going on?*
Hellhounds were an aggressive species.
Normally, anything in their line of sight was fair game to attack.
But look at these ones.
They weren’t chasing the people who’d ducked into the alley ahead, and they weren’t pouncing on anyone who’d fallen.
They were just running—all in one direction.
*…Containing the situation comes first.*
I-sol thought as she chased after a hellhound that was veering toward an alley.
The hellhound started to turn into the alley, then spotted the crowd of people packed inside and changed course again.
That gave I-sol just enough time to catch up and bring her wooden sword down.
“Three!”
“YELP!”
Two left.
“…Hff!”
A hellhound’s top speed was sixty kilometers per hour.
Chasing down hellhounds scattered in every direction was no easy task, even for I-sol.
At that moment.
Rustle.
Da-hong reached into the bag and pulled out the last donut.
Strawberry.
Crunch.
The instant those pink lips bit into the donut—
The hellhounds’ eyes went wide.
BOOM—!
And then, all at once, massive holes tore open through the center of each of their bodies.
Thud, thud.
Fragments rained down onto the asphalt.
“…!!”
I-sol spun around to look at Da-hong, chest heaving.
Da-hong popped the last piece of donut into her mouth and met I-sol’s eyes.
I-sol broke into a bright grin and gave her a thumbs-up.
Waaailing——.
Sirens drew closer.
Two police cars pulled to a stop along the main road.
With the situation wrapped up, Se-ha came jogging over.
“I-sol, are you okay?”
“Yeah. Thanks to you.”
I-sol tucked her wooden sword back into her bag.
“Go on ahead. I’ll handle the cleanup.”
“Huh? Are you sure you’re okay on your own?”
“I’m on the student council. I’d have to file the report later anyway.”
“I… okay.”
I-sol shrugged, then pointed at the shopping bags on the ground.
“Oh right, don’t forget those bags. They’re unni’s.”
“…Got it. Thanks.”
“Da-hong unni.”
I-sol turned to Da-hong.
“Thank you for your help today.”
“That was the price of the donut.”
“Expensive donut.”
I-sol let out a small laugh at Da-hong’s words and turned away.
Then, as a police officer approached, she held out her student ID and stepped forward.
“Hello. I’m Han I-sol, first-year student council president at the Korea Hunter Academy. I’ll help explain the situation at the scene.”
The officer looked over her student ID and gave a nod.
Se-ha watched the exchange, then turned to Da-hong.
“Let’s head back.”
“Alright.”
***
On the way home.
Se-ha walked carrying the shopping bags, murmuring to himself.
“I-sol’s pretty amazing, isn’t she?”
“…”
“Taking down hellhounds with just a wooden sword isn’t easy. They’re C-rank.”
“Hmm.”
Da-hong gave a vague sound of agreement.
“And that judgment, that courage. Honestly, I really respect her.”
That much was true.
Decisive, unhesitating movement backed by a sense of responsibility.
And her skills were genuinely solid.
Someone like that—even if she fell into hell—would probably manage to hold her own to some degree.
“She’s probably the strongest first-year right now.”
Se-ha continued.
“She’s been well-known since middle school. She placed in sword competitions before she even Awakened, and after Awakening she won back-to-back youth Hunter tournaments. She enrolled here with the top score in the combat track, too.”
“Written exams?”
“Second place. She’s good at studying too.”
“Hmm….”
“We’ve known each other since we were kids. But every time I see her, she’s always confident, says exactly what she thinks, gives everything her all.”
Se-ha’s voice dropped slightly.
“I wanted to be like that too.”
Da-hong listened without a word.
Se-ha was walking with his eyes on the ground.
“I keep failing because I can’t summon anything. My personality’s like this, so even when someone gives me a hard time I can’t say a word back…. Standing next to I-sol makes me feel so small. Maybe Sang-jun was right—maybe I should’ve gone into the general track after all.”
Da-hong clicked her tongue quietly.
Watching him shrink into himself like this reminded her of herself when she’d first fallen into hell, and she didn’t like it.
So she spoke.
“Are you still small right now?”
Se-ha lifted his head slightly.
“…That’s—”
“You’re first place.”
“That’s because of you, Da-hong.”
“Did I take your written exams for you?”
“…No.”
Se-ha had no answer to that.
Da-hong said, expression unchanged:
“If you want to be confident, then be confident. You don’t have to wait for it.”
“That’s easier said than done.”
“I know.”
Da-hong said it plainly.
“You do it anyway.”
Se-ha found himself looking at her without meaning to.
Da-hong was staring straight ahead, her expression indifferent.
“If you lack strength, build strength. If you lack knowledge, build knowledge. Did you think confidence comes from nothing?”
“…”
Se-ha heard those words and said nothing.
The two of them walked side by side.
The evening light stretched long across the road.