Da-hong sat on the sofa, drinking her coffee.
Lee Seo-yeon’s face drifted into her mind.
The moment she had summoned the archangel.
The mana that had flooded the hallway.
The expression that had glared back with lethal intent.
*—I can’t allow a dangerous demon like you anywhere near my student.*
The corner of Da-hong’s mouth curved upward.
It had been a while.
Since she’d last faced someone who looked like they might actually come at her with everything they had.
*An archangel, huh…*
She found herself looking forward to it.
Scritch.
Scritch-scritch.
Scritch-scritch-scritch-scritch.
Da-hong glanced toward the sound.
It was Ruby.
She was crouched in front of the bathroom, digging through the litter.
Sand had already scattered all the way across the living room floor.
Scritch.
Scritch-scritch.
The sandy patch kept spreading.
Da-hong looked back out the window.
She took a sip of coffee.
“Ah—Ruby!”
She heard Se-ha shout.
Ruby sat in the middle of the sand-strewn living room, tail raised high with unmistakable pride.
“Ruby.”
“Mya.”
“Come here.”
“Myaong.”
Ruby did not go to Se-ha.
Instead, she made a point of swiping at the sand one more time with her front paw.
Scritch.
“Ruby!”
“Eong.”
Thud.
Ruby bolted, dodging Se-ha as he lunged for her.
Pitter-patter-patter.
Ruby ran.
Se-ha ran too.
Ruby leapt up onto the sofa.
Then she kicked off the backrest and dropped back down to the floor.
She shot right past Se-ha and crawled under the dining table.
Se-ha dropped to his hands and knees and peered underneath.
Ruby sat dead center.
Golden eyes looked back at him.
Her tail swayed slowly.
“Come out.”
“Nyaa.”
“I said come out.”
“Mya.”
Se-ha reached in.
Ruby took one step back.
Just far enough to be out of reach.
“…”
Da-hong watched from the sofa, looking down at the whole scene.
“Help me.”
Se-ha said.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s entertaining.”
Se-ha looked up at Da-hong.
She was smiling with quiet satisfaction.
The exact same expression she’d worn while thinking about Seo-yeon.
Not that Se-ha had any way of knowing that.
Se-ha let out a sigh.
Thinking that Da-hong was insufferable, he reached back under the table.
Ruby batted at his fingers with her front paw.
Tap, tap.
“…Are you seriously playing with me right now?”
“Myaong.”
She was.
Scrape.
The moment Se-ha pulled out a chair, Ruby shot out from under the table like a bullet.
He was being completely played.
Just as Se-ha’s frustration was reaching a boil—
*Ding—*
His phone buzzed.
He pulled it out and checked the message.
“Huh…?”
“What?”
“Nothing, it’s just—my teacher’s asking if I can meet up separately this weekend, out of nowhere…”
“Oh~?”
Da-hong made an interested little sound through her nose.
“Where?”
“She just sent an address.”
Se-ha pulled up the map.
It was near a café.
“A date,” Da-hong said.
“There’s no way.”
“A man and a woman, meeting alone on a weekend. That’s a date.”
Se-ha stared at Da-hong with an expression of pure disbelief.
“She’s my teacher. I’m her student.”
“Teachers can’t go on dates?”
“…That’s not what I’m saying.”
Se-ha tucked his phone back into his pocket.
“She probably just has something to tell me.”
“Then she’d just say it at school. Why call you out separately?” Find the original chapter at g.com.
“…”
He had a point there.
Da-hong grinned.
“Guess you’d better dress up.”
“I’m not dressing up.”
“You want to disappoint a woman?”
“It’s not like that.”
“Go to the salon and get your hair done too.”
“I’m not going.”
***
The day of the appointment arrived.
Se-ha stood in front of his wardrobe for a long time that morning.
Da-hong’s words kept nagging at him.
*—A date.*
“…”
He knew, rationally, that it made no sense.
What could someone like Seo-yeon—young, beautiful—possibly see in him?
On top of that, she was a summoner impressive enough to call forth a Pegasus.
She probably had no shortage of admirers.
But.
But still.
What if, against all odds, this actually was something important?
The imagination of a teenage boy is a formidable thing, and it kept trying to drag Se-ha off into a land of sweet daydreams.
*Come to think of it, that “personal consultation” she had with Da-hong… could it possibly have been…*
How often would a summoner bypass her own student and go straight to the summon with a question like that?
His eyes drifted to the full-length mirror on the wardrobe door.
For some reason, he thought he looked pretty decent today.
*No, seriously—you never know.*
…Gulp.
He swallowed.
After a moment’s hesitation, he reached into the wardrobe.
***
When he arrived at the meeting spot, Seo-yeon was already there.
A comfortable zip-up hoodie.
Leggings.
Sneakers.
Hair pulled back in a tight ponytail.
Seo-yeon looked Se-ha up and down.
“…What are you doing?”
“Hm?”
“That outfit.”
Her expression said she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
Se-ha looked down at himself.
Neatly pressed slacks, a crisp button-down shirt, and a vest.
He’d even gone to the salon and had his hair styled.
“Did you just come from meeting a girlfriend or something?”
“…No.”
Se-ha cursed Da-hong in his head.
*You were wrong, Da-hong.*
He could almost hear Da-hong cackling.
Seo-yeon gave him the look of someone witnessing a truly bizarre specimen, then tilted her head toward the building beside them.
It was a low, wide structure.
The café he’d seen on the map was on the block across from it.
“Let’s go in first. We can borrow some clothes for you.”
“…Yes.”
The inside of the facility was fairly spacious.
Not as large as the Academy’s training grounds, but the ceilings were high, and mana-dampening material lined every wall.
The training area was divided into several separate zones.
It was impressive in a different way from the Academy’s facilities.
Smaller in scale, but the solidity it radiated was on an entirely different level.
It made abundantly clear that this was a place built for powerful Hunters.
Seo-yeon watched Se-ha take it all in for a moment, then spoke.
“Curious about what this place is?”
“…Yes.”
“It’s a special training facility under the Hunter Association. Regular Hunters can’t just walk in.”
“What?”
Se-ha looked around.
So that was why such a fine facility had almost no one in it.
“Then how did you…”
“I know someone. Called in a favor.”
Seo-yeon said it briefly.
Se-ha asked, “Is there a reason you didn’t use the Academy’s facilities?”
“Using those leaves a record.”
“A record…?”
“Grades. Evaluations. Homeroom reports. All of it.”
Seo-yeon walked ahead as she spoke.
“What I’m planning is outside the official curriculum. The Academy wouldn’t look kindly on it.”
Se-ha asked with a skeptical look, “Is this like… private tutoring under the table?”
“…If you want to put it that way.”
“…Why are you doing this for me?”
On her own authority, behind the school’s back.
What could she possibly be getting out of this?
Seo-yeon didn’t turn around.
She pushed open the door to the training room as she answered.
“There’s something I want to verify.”
The door swung open, and bright light briefly washed out his vision.
Two people were standing in the middle of the training room.
One was a large, dark-skinned man built entirely of muscle.
He wore black gauntlets and a sleeveless top.
His arms were crossed, and his upper arms were thicker than Se-ha’s waist.
The other was a woman shorter than Se-ha.
A wide-brimmed hat was pulled low over her face, making it hard to see her features.
In one hand she held a staff taller than she was.
Seo-yeon made the introductions.
“These are my classmates from the Academy. The big one is Oh Dae-hyeon, the small one is Lee No-eul.”
The large man, Dae-hyeon, broke into a wide grin.
“Oh, so you’re Yu Se-ha!”
A massive hand shot out toward him. Follow the newest chapters on g.com.
“Ah, hello.”
Se-ha reached out to shake it, and his hand disappeared entirely inside Dae-hyeon’s grip.
Dae-hyeon thumped Se-ha on the back.
“One look and I can tell your base fitness is seriously lacking, hahaha!”
“Ugh. Heh…”
Se-ha couldn’t help but flinch.
Dae-hyeon stepped aside, and the woman introduced as Lee No-eul approached.
The wide-brimmed hat moved slowly.
Her face came into view from beneath it.
Long lashes hung low over her eyes.
She looked half-asleep.
No-eul looked Se-ha over slowly, from head to toe.
Then she made a small sound.
“Hmm.”
A moment later, a small hand was extended.
“Hand.”
“Sorry?”
“Give me your hand.”
Se-ha held out his hand.
No-eul took it in both of hers.
Then she closed her eyes without a word.
About ten seconds passed.
“Your mana capacity is pretty substantial. No—’pretty substantial’ doesn’t even cover it.”
No-eul opened her eyes.
Blank, unfocused eyes looked straight at Se-ha.
“Where did you learn this? Building mana channels.”
“Hm? Ah… I just kind of figured it out as I went. It felt more natural for my body this way, so…”
“Self-taught.”
No-eul murmured, still holding his hand.
“The mana flow is different from the standard method. You built this yourself.”
“Is that a problem?”
“No.”
No-eul released his hand.
Then she looked at Seo-yeon and said,
“This kid’s a genius.”
“…”
Seo-yeon didn’t respond.
Se-ha spoke up in a flustered voice.
“M-me? A genius?”
“Yeah.”
“That can’t be right.”
“Why not?”
No-eul looked at Se-ha again.
“I—I’ve never once successfully completed a summoning circle since I enrolled. So during the evaluation semester I couldn’t participate in class at all, and I kept failing.”
“…”
No-eul’s head tilted slightly.
“You said you ranked first in written exams.”
“Yes… I was trying to make up for my practical scores somehow…”
“Then that doesn’t add up.”
No-eul murmured quietly.
Then she pointed her chin at Se-ha and said,
“Try deploying it. A summoning circle.”
Se-ha swallowed, then drew up his mana and deployed the summoning circle.
*Fwaaash!*
A magic circle covered in intricate patterns materialized in front of him.
No-eul examined it closely.
“There’s nothing wrong with it.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. The reason you kept failing at summoning—there was an external factor. It wasn’t your fault.”
“What kind of…?”
“That I wouldn’t know. Oh, you can cancel it now.”
Se-ha dismissed the summoning circle.
No-eul pulled her hat down lower and let out a long yawn.
“Haaam…. Well, it doesn’t matter now. You have a summon already, right?”
At that, Seo-yeon spoke up.
“That’s actually why I called you here.”
“Hm?”
All three turned to look at Seo-yeon.
She casually draped an arm around Se-ha’s shoulder.
“I want you two to train him.”
“Huh?”
“…?”
The most bewildered of all was Se-ha.
“…Pardon?”
***
Sip.
Sip-sip.
Sip-sip-sip.
Ruby was diligently drinking her formula.
Da-hong sat on the sofa, looking down at Ruby lying across her thigh.
The apartment was quiet.
*Hic.*
Ruby drained the feeder dry, then nuzzled her nose against Da-hong’s wrist.
“All done?”
“Mya.”
Ruby kneaded a few times, then curled herself into a ball.
Da-hong scratched under her chin with one finger.
Purr-purr-purr.
Ruby closed her eyes and purred contentedly.
Da-hong looked out the window.
The apartment without Se-ha was quieter than she’d expected.
“We’ve eaten, so should we go out?”
Ruby opened her eyes.
“Myaong?”
“I’m bored.”
Ruby’s tail slowly rose.
Da-hong scooped Ruby into her arms and stood up.
It was time to go out and play.