“Se-ha. Wake up.”
“Mmm….”
Se-ha opened his eyes at the sound of Da-hong’s voice.
Not the warehouse ceiling—he was looking up at a blue sky.
“…?”
He tried to sit up, but the back of his head pulled with a dull, heavy ache.
“You’re awake?”
Da-hong was crouched beside him, looking down at him.
Her expression was perfectly calm.
Se-ha slowly looked around.
He was lying outside the warehouse.
He furrowed his brow.
The spots where he’d taken hits during the sparring session throbbed.
“…What happened?”
“They all left.”
“…What?”
Se-ha blinked.
“Those people?”
“Yeah.”
“Why, all of a sudden?”
“There seemed to be a misunderstanding, so I cleared it up.”
“…You cleared it up.”
“Yeah.”
Da-hong gave a light nod.
Se-ha stared at her for a moment, then turned his head toward the warehouse.
The iron door was slightly ajar.
He slowly got to his feet.
He staggered for a moment, but steadied himself against the wall.
Then he peered through the gap in the iron door.
“….”
It was completely empty.
Spotless.
The crowd of people who’d been packed inside, the weapons, the chairs.
Not even a speck of dust.
Se-ha stared blankly into the space for a moment before he spoke.
“How.”
“Through conversation.”
“….”
Conversation.
Se-ha turned the word over in his mind.
In a warehouse packed with Iron Claw Guild members.
In front of people holding weapons.
Conversation?
“Could you say that one more time?”
“I talked it out.”
Da-hong answered without so much as a flicker of expression.
Se-ha looked at her.
He had no way of knowing whether she was lying or not.
There wasn’t even a hint that she was trying to hide anything.
“Seems they had the wrong person. They asked me to pass along their apologies.”
“Is that so….”
Se-ha replied, his voice flat.
The Iron Claw Guild had asked her to pass along their apologies.
She’d talked out the misunderstanding.
They’d all left.
None of it made any sense.
Se-ha had seen it clearly.
The look in that scarred man’s eyes.
Even a first-year at the Academy would know that wasn’t the kind of look that got resolved through conversation.
But….
*Should I ask what really happened?*
Se-ha glanced over at Da-hong.
Da-hong had apparently already lost interest in him—she was peering at a worn sticker stuck to the outer wall of the warehouse.
*…Never mind.*
Se-ha let out a quiet sigh.
This was Da-hong, after all.
Even if he tried to dig out the truth, if she didn’t want to tell him, she wouldn’t tell him.
Not to the very end.
“Let’s go. Da-hong.”
“Okay.”
Se-ha got up and brushed the dirt off his pants.
Da-hong pulled her gaze from the sticker and came to his side.
“Se-ha.”
“Yeah?”
“Let’s get a cat.”
“…A cat?”
“Yeah, a cat. They’re cute.”
Out of nowhere, a cat?
Had she seen one while he was unconscious?
Se-ha was baffled, but he couldn’t just brush it off.
He knew by now that when Da-hong asked about something like this, she meant it.
“…I’ll think about it.”
“Okay.”
Da-hong started humming softly and walked on ahead.
Se-ha followed slowly behind her.
***
The next day.
Sang-jun didn’t come to school.
“He withdrew?”
“That’s what I heard. I caught it walking past the faculty office.”
The classroom buzzed.
“Good riddance. He spent forever bullying kids weaker than him.”
“Turns out what he always said came back around on him. What’s the point of a Summoner who can’t summon?”
Se-ha sat at his desk and listened.
*…Withdrew.*
It was complicated.
If he was being honest, he’d disliked Sang-jun.
After being tormented all through the evaluation semester, even the sound of his voice had been enough to make Se-ha’s skin crawl.
Even now that he had a summon, that hadn’t changed.
But.
*Is this because of me?*
Technically it was Da-hong’s doing—but then again, he was the one who’d summoned Da-hong.
Se-ha pressed his lower lip between his teeth.
“Yu Se-ha.”
He heard Sol’s voice.
“Does it bother you?”
“…A little.”
Sol looked at him for a moment, then said,
“It’s not your fault.”
“…I know.”
He knew.
But knowing didn’t make it any easier to carry.
Ding-dong-dang-dong—
The bell signaling the start of class rang, and the homeroom teacher walked in.
“Everyone sit down.”
The murmuring classroom settled.
Seo-yeon set down the attendance book and spoke.
“One announcement before class today. Some of you might have missed it yesterday, so I’ll go over it again.”
Se-ha looked up.
*Yesterday?*
“The first Gate practical of the semester. Next Thursday.”
Se-ha blinked.
A Gate practical.
That was pretty soon.
“Check the handout being passed around now for your team assignments. Target grade, precautions—it’s all in there, so read through it beforehand. Oh, and just so you know—you’re not allowed to enter any Gate other than the one assigned to you. There are no bonus points for it, and more importantly, you’ll be turned away at the entrance. Keep in mind that you’re operating on provisional licenses, not full Hunter credentials.”
The handouts came forward from the front.
Se-ha skimmed through his.
Team 1: Han I-sol, Yun Ha-rin, Park Jin-ho, Lee Sang-jun, Yu Se-ha.
It looked like they’d been balanced by academic ranking.
*With Sang-jun gone, we’ll be running as four.*
Se-ha thought this as he read the description of their assigned Gate.
The Nest of the Dead Behemoth.
A C-rank Gate.
The Behemoth itself was an S-rank monster, but the creature had already been slain three years ago.
Because it had been the Behemoth’s territory, residual mana levels were high, causing monsters to continuously spawn there.
As a result, the current objective was to clear out the lower-rank monsters that had taken over the nest—it was a site used for the training of Academy students and apprentice Hunters.
“Originally, the Hellhound practical was supposed to come first, but as you all know, there was an incident a few days ago. The curriculum’s been reworked around a Gate of similar difficulty. If anything, expect it to be harder rather than easier.”
Seo-yeon said this.
“Until the practical, training will focus mainly on building coordination within your teams. How well you work together in the limited time you have will also factor into your grade, so don’t skip out, don’t fight with each other. Understood?”
At that moment.
“Excuse me, Teacher.”
A girl with red hair tied in two pigtails raised her hand.
It was Yun Ha-rin, a student in the same team as Se-ha.
“Mm, yes. …Yun Ha-rin?”
Seo-yeon, who had needed a brief moment to recall the name, called on Ha-rin.
Ha-rin spoke with a disgruntled expression.
“Our team is one person short. And on top of that, we have the last-place student. I think that’s unfair.”
The eyes of the class turned toward Se-ha for a moment.
Se-ha felt the stares and let his head drop slightly.
Seo-yeon looked at Ha-rin for a moment before speaking.
“Han I-sol is on your team?”
“…Yes.”
“Han I-sol alone is worth more than one person. She’ll more than cover the gap.”
“But….”
“And.”
Seo-yeon cut off Ha-rin before she could argue further.
“Party balance isn’t always perfect in the field. People drop out, unexpected situations come up. You can’t stop to reorganize every time that happens.”
Ha-rin fell silent.
“Figuring out how to work with the people you’re given is part of this practical. Objection to team assignments: denied.”
“….”
Ha-rin said nothing more.
But she didn’t look convinced.
Seo-yeon moved her gaze away and continued to the next announcement.
Se-ha quietly let out a breath.
*…This isn’t going to be easy, even before the practical.*
***
After school.
The training grounds.
Team 1 gathered together for the first time.
“Alright, let’s start with introductions. I’m Han I-sol. Position: vanguard, weapon: sword. Nice to meet everyone.”
Clap, clap, clap.
Applause.
From two people—everyone except Ha-rin.
“Yun Ha-rin. Large axe.”
Ha-rin answered flatly.
Strapped to her back was an enormous iron axe.
“I’m Park Jin-ho. I ranked tenth this time, and I’m a tanker—I use a large tower shield.”
“Hi, I’m Yu Se-ha. I’m a Summoner. My rank is….”
“Who doesn’t know. Dead last.”
Se-ha gave an awkward laugh at Ha-rin’s blunt remark.
“Your summon?”
Ha-rin’s gaze slid past Se-ha to the side.
It was Da-hong.
Da-hong was standing against one wall of the training grounds, staring blankly up at the sky.
“…That’s your summon?”
“Uh, y-yeah.”
“What is she doing?”
“I’m not sure….”
Ha-rin stared at Da-hong for a long moment, brow furrowed.
Da-hong, for her part, didn’t move an inch.
“Whatever.”
Ha-rin looked away and crossed her arms.
“Han I-sol.”
“Yeah?”
“I’ll ask you straight. Can our team handle a C-rank Gate without any problems? We’re one person down, and one of the people we do have is a failing student who can barely fight.”
“Ahaha… I think it’ll be fine? If we work hard.”
“So what you’re saying is, right now, it’s not fine.”
Clank.
Ha-rin rested her axe on her shoulder and fixed Se-ha with a hard stare.
“You. Be honest. You can’t control your summon, can you.”
“….”
Se-ha silently turned his head toward Da-hong.
“Um, Da-hong…?”
Da-hong turned her head.
“Could you come over here for a second?”
Da-hong padded over lightly.
“What?”
“…Ta-daa.”
Se-ha gestured toward Da-hong with both hands, like a magician presenting a trick.
A vein visibly pulsed at Ha-rin’s temple.
“Are you messing with me right now?”
“S-sorry….”
“I don’t know what trick you pulled to take down Sang-jun’s Salamander, but if you can’t control your summon properly, it’s meaningless in actual combat.”
Se-ha couldn’t argue.
She wasn’t wrong.
Ha-rin continued.
“Not being able to control your summon means you’re effectively a non-combatant. And if a non-combatant goes down inside a Gate, you become a liability for the rest of us.”
“I’ll work hard.”
“Work hard.”
Ha-rin repeated the words as if chewing on them.
“You think the monsters are going to go easy on you because you’re working hard?”
“Ha-rin.”
I-sol cut in quietly.
“Se-ha is part of our team too. Don’t push him like that—we should all get along.”
“Han I-sol.”
Ha-rin turned a cool look on I-sol.
“Don’t give me orders just because you beat me once. I still haven’t acknowledged you.”
“I’m not giving orders, I’m just—”
“Anyway.”
I-sol smiled wryly at Ha-rin’s attitude.
Apparently, Ha-rin had been one of the most promising prospects entering the Academy alongside I-sol.
They’d been matched against each other during the entrance exam, and ever since Ha-rin lost that bout, she’d carried this rivalry toward I-sol.
“Either way, I have absolutely no intention of going into a Gate dragging dead weight.”
Ha-rin turned back to face Se-ha.
“At the very least, make sure you’re not holding us back.”
“…?”
Clank.
Ha-rin swung the axe down from her shoulder and gripped it in her hand.
Metal rang as the gauntlet and axe head met.
“Run.”
“…What?”
“Ten laps around the training grounds. Right now.”
“Out of nowhere?”
“If you can’t control your summon, you at least need to be able to run. You’ll need to be able to flee inside the Gate.”
“That’s fair, but right now—”
Clang.
Ha-rin dropped into a combat stance.
“Want me to make it fifteen?”
“….”
“Ready.”
“W-wait, at least let me warm up—!”
“Go!”
BANG!
The massive axe slammed into the ground between Se-ha’s legs.
“Aaagh!”
Se-ha bolted toward the track.
Clank!
Clank!
“…?”
At the metallic sound behind him, Se-ha looked back.
Ha-rin was charging after him, axe raised, with terrifying momentum.
Se-ha shouted in a panic.
“Wh-what?! Why are you following me!”
“Move faster!”
“No, why are you coming with—!”
“You’re slow! Faster!”
“Aaah! Stop chasing me with an axe!”
Jin-ho watched from one side of the training grounds and smiled wryly.
I-sol quietly let out a sigh.
Da-hong watched in silence.