After that romantic morning, we went to the community service center and had Sia's canceled registration restored.
I had wondered whether an identity that had already been processed as deceased could really be recovered, but South Korea's administrative system was more thorough than we had imagined.
"Oppa. It's called a resurrection application. Isn't that hilarious?"
"Yeah. I'd heard about it before and thought it was a joke. Who knew something like this actually existed."
I had heard the form existed because missing people occasionally came back alive.
But who knew my Sia would be the one filling out that resurrection application.
After taking care of the paperwork, we headed straight for the Rank Assessment Center directly under the Hunter Agency.
"Former Hunters must renew their rank immediately after their resurrection application is approved. What kind of law is that?"
"Right? Why are there so many weird laws in the world?"
I seemed to remember hearing that some American state had a ridiculous law saying that if students rode horses to school, the principal was obliged to look after the horses for the day.
This one seemed just as useless and bizarre.
Anyway.
Having to go to the Rank Assessment Center the moment the resurrection application was approved was a real hassle, but at least Sia could use Teleport.
We teleported to the Rank Assessment Center, and as soon as we arrived, Sia filled out the forms.
"Excuse me, miss. When I get my rank assessed, I have to go in alone, right?"
Sia asked the receptionist while filling out the forms.
But the Rank Assessment Center's receptionist dutifully answered that this wasn't the case.
"If you like, you can go in with your companion. The law changed recently."
"Really? That's a relief."
Even as she talked with the receptionist, Sia casually pressed her body against my arm.
Then, putting down her pen, Sia asked me.
"Oppa. Since you're here anyway, do you want to get your rank reassessed too?"
"Me too?"
"Yeah. You have to renew your rank once every 2 years anyway. How long has it been since you renewed yours, oppa?"
I hadn't thought of that.
It was because I had spent a year living like a wreck, forgetting everything to do with being a Hunter.
When was it, the last time I had my rank remeasured?
"1 year... and 10 months."
"Then it's about time for a checkup! Perfect. Since you're here, let's get it done together."
Sia got another form from the receptionist and handed it to me.
She wasn't wrong, so I went along with Sia and decided to get reassessed as well.
After we finished filling out the forms, we headed to the assessment room for our rank reassessments.
'I wonder what rank I'll get.'
Barring anything unusual, I would most likely get D-rank again. If I was unlucky I might get E-rank, but supposedly ranks rarely went down.
And of course, my awakening type wasn't going to change either.
What I was really curious about wasn't my rank but Sia's.
Sia's rank had been D-rank, the same as mine.
But not anymore.
Sia, who in her human days had been a mere D-rank Hunter.
But now she was a dragon who had lived 2500 years, a being truly beyond all standards.
Just the fact that she used a mysterious power called Dragon Words that I had never even heard of, and could cast high-level magic like Teleport without formulas or strain, showed that her power was truly unprecedented.
On top of that, if my guess was right, the powers Sia had shown me were probably a mere drop in the ocean compared to her full strength.
Taking all that into account......
'Isn't she going to come out Unmeasurable?'
Normally, an 'Unmeasurable rank' was only given when someone's power was so feeble that measuring it was meaningless.
But there was a case most people didn't know about, one that existed only in theory. When someone was so strong that their power simply couldn't be defined by any rank in the current system, they also got an Unmeasurable rank.
But such a case existed only in theory; it had never once been reported.
'It won't just be Korea. The whole world is going to go crazy.'
At the very least, this would make international headlines.
Full of anticipation, I looked at Sia.
But.
Unlike me, bursting with anticipation, Sia herself didn't seem to care much about her rank.
Instead, Sia just kept staring at me the whole way there.
"Sia, is there something on my face?"
"No, it just feels new, coming here with you, oppa. I'm happy, but it also feels a little weird."
"Hmm. Now that you mention it, me too."
There was no need to bring anyone along for a rank assessment, so we had always come alone.
Hearing Sia say that, I felt a little strange too.
Anyway, as soon as we reached the assessment room, a staff member called both our names.
"Mr. Yun Min-jun, Ms. Jeong Sia."
"Yes!"
"Oh, the two of you came together. Who would like to be tested first?"
"Sia, want to go first?"
"No, you go first, oppa. I'm fine."
Thanks to Sia yielding her turn, I got my rank remeasured before her.
"The remeasurement works the same way as when you were first measured, so please just relax."
I went into the testing room, and Sia waved to me from the waiting area.
A little while later, my rank remeasurement began.
Well, I didn't expect any dramatic change for myself, so I wasn't particularly nervous.
The staff member's voice came through the speaker in the testing room.
- Please channel mana into the ring we provided, and when the signal sounds, strike the training dummy.
As the attendant instructed, I let mana flow into the measurement ring, then gripped the wooden sword.
A moment later the signal came, and the instant I got it, I charged at the dummy on the far side.
Then, the moment I closed the distance to the dummy.
Whoosh!
I swung my sword with all my might.
CLANG! CLANG!
Because my combat instincts had dulled, the first strike didn't feel like it landed properly.
But.
'It's better than I thought.'
With each strike that followed, I could feel my forgotten combat instincts gradually returning.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
The strange impact sound of the rank-measurement dummy, the kind you would rarely hear anywhere but in a rank test.
It wasn't a pleasant sound, but I ignored it and swung my sword with everything I had until the time limit ran out.
In that moment, it truly felt as if I had gone back a year.
- Measurement complete! Please wait a moment.
Following the staff member's directions, I sat down in the waiting area where Sia was.
"Good job, oppa! You did great! Your skills haven't gotten rusty at all, huh?"
"R-Really?"
"Yeah. I was worried you might not be able to show what you can really do. But apart from the first minute or so, it was the oppa I know."
I had felt the same, and hearing Sia say so made me even more confident about the results.
The results didn't take long to come out.
[Yun Min-jun / D / Swordsman
Strength : 28
Stamina : 24
Agility : 24
Mana : 16
Average : 23
Special Skill : X (+0)
Final Average : 23]
The staff member opened the door, came in, and spoke.
"No changes to either your rank or your type. Thank you for your hard work."
"Thank you. Phew, this isn't bad."
Apart from my Mana stat dropping by 1, there were no major changes.
Especially considering my 1-year hiatus, it was a result that wasn't bad at all.
As if she knew how I felt, Sia patted me and told me I'd done well.
"Next, Ms. Jeong Sia. Hmm, one moment, please."
But the staff member, who had been looking over Sia's papers closely, suddenly started as if she had seen a ghost.
"Ms. Sia, you're here... for a rank remeasurement due to an Awakened resurrection application?"
"Yes."
"Oh my gosh. Then, um... you're a Returnee? No way. I've never seen a Returnee before!"
The staff member, who had kept a calm tone until a moment ago, suddenly grew chatty the moment she confirmed Sia was a Returnee.
Her dead-fish eyes, the kind so common among office workers, had turned into the eyes of a girl brimming with curiosity.
"I've only ever heard about Returnees on the news now and then, so this is my first time seeing one in person! Wow... the feeling when you came back—."
But the staff member, who had briefly lost her office-worker self, seemed to feel Sia's gaze and mine; she stopped talking and cleared her throat.
"Ahem. I'm sorry. I was being rude......."
"Not at all. I would've done the same. Returnees aren't exactly common."
"Thank you for understanding. Rank remeasurement for Returnees like you, Ms. Sia, takes a little longer to prepare, so we ask for your patience."
Back to her usual level of energy, the staff member prepared Sia's rank measurement.
During the short preparation time, even though the results weren't out yet, a picture was already forming in my head.
The system flashing Unmeasurable, a flustered attendant, and then an absurd record coming out on remeasurement....
The Hunter Agency's bigwigs coming in person for a meeting, some top guild offering Sia a blank check and kicking off a full-blown recruiting war......
'So proud of you, my Sia.'
How should I celebrate if that happens?
Should I act unimpressed at first, then celebrate for real once Sia gets flustered?
While I was lost in fantasies like that.
Sia's rank measurement began.
Sia could probably play with that rank-measurement dummy over there like a toy.
Normally that dummy, built for rank measurement, was sturdy stuff made of a special material that hardly ever got so much as a scratch, but whoever built it couldn't possibly have designed it with a being beyond all standards, like a dragon, in mind.
I wondered just how that dummy was going to get smashed to bits.
With that expectation, I watched Sia's rank reassessment.
However.
"......?"
Instead of the overwhelming power she had shown at our reunion, Sia was striking the dummy with ordinary spells, just like an ordinary mage.
She looked exactly the way she used to.
Just like Sia before her reincarnation.
The feel of a dime-a-dozen D-rank mage.
'Why...?'
Why is she hiding her power?
As I watched Sia's rank test, unable to fathom her intent, feeling thoroughly puzzled.
Sia's results came out quickly as well.
"....Huh?"
The staff member, who checked the results first, tilted her head at the report as if something was off.
"That's strange. Your stats haven't changed?"
[Jeong Sia / D / Mage
Strength : 15
Stamina : 21
Agility : 23
Mana : 29
Average : 22
Special Skill : X (+0)
Final Average : 22]
The estimated stats the testing room staff member showed us were almost exactly what Sia's had been back when she was human.
The staff member scratched her head in confusion, but Sia just smiled sweetly, unbothered.
"It's not common, but Returnees like you, Ms. Sia, usually come back stronger than before. Their stats go up at least a little, or they gain a special skill. But you... there's no change from before."
The attendant gave her a look of sympathy.
[Jeong Sia / D / Mage
Strength : 15
Stamina : 21
Agility : 23
Mana : 29
Average : 22
Special Skill : X (+0)
Final Average : 22]
"Am I an unusual case, ma'am?"
Unlike me, still confused, Sia asked the staff member as if she knew nothing.
"Yes. Returnees usually either gain stats or awaken some other power, to varying degrees... Just in case, I'll measure once more."
The attendant measured her rank once more.
But the result was the same this time too.
[Jeong Sia / D / Mage
Strength : 15
Stamina : 21
Agility : 23
Mana : 29
Average : 22
Special Skill : X (+0)
Final Average : 22]
Faced with these results, the attendant tilted her head, then handed Sia the forms for reissuing her Hunter license.
"This must be very disappointing. We'll contact you separately later, but if any problems come up before then, please get in touch with us right away."
"Yup. Let's go, oppa!"
At that, Sia took my hand and led the way, as if she had no lingering attachment whatsoever to her measured rank.
"......."
After she handed in the forms at the counter and came out with her reissued Hunter license.
Unable to hold back my curiosity, I asked Sia.
"Sia, why did you get a low rank on purpose?"
After checking whether anyone was around and confirming there wasn't, I whispered in a low voice.
"Is it because of me?"
"Yep. It's what you're thinking, oppa."
Sia didn't deny it.
Surely she hadn't matched her rank to mine to spare my pride as a D-rank Hunter.
Then, perhaps sensing that my expression had darkened, Sia cast Silence around us as she had the day before, and went on.
"What are you thinking, oppa! It's because if our ranks are too far apart, we can't go into Gates together!"
"......What?"
It wasn't exactly laid down by law, but among Hunters there was an unwritten rule that, barring Gate Breaks or special circumstances, you didn't clear Gates with Hunters two or more ranks apart.
"...You're hopeless. Honestly."
So that was why she had faked her rank measurement, for such an adorable reason.
When I turned toward Sia, she was smiling shyly as if it were no big deal.
Even so, if she had shown her true power, she would have rewritten Hunter history. Didn't she think it was a waste?
-So I had thought.
It suddenly struck me that to Sia, a dragon, such a hollow reputation hardly mattered.
If that sort of thing mattered to her, simply staying in that other world would have been enough, yet she had crossed dimensions and come here just for me.
Anyway, grateful that she had done this out of consideration for me, I kissed Sia's cheek out of the blue.
"Thank you."
"Hehe."
At that, Sia squirmed, apparently embarrassed.
Then.
"Oppa. Since we're on the subject, want to try going into a Gate right now?"
"A Gate...?"
Not a date?
"Yeah. Since we're on the subject, and to bring back old memories. We used to go into Gates together all the time, ever since our Hunter Academy days. Can't we?"
Going into a Gate instead of on an ordinary date.
It was a little odd, but...
'If that's what Sia wants, then I'll go.'
The only problem was that I'd had a hiatus during the 1 year Sia was gone.......
Regardless of my rank reassessment results, I might not pull my weight in real combat, and my psychological problems might tie me up again.
With Sia, a dragon, at my side, that obviously wouldn't be a big problem, but...
'I don't want to look disappointing, not in front of Sia of all people.'
I knew. That in front of a transcendent being like Sia, no matter how hard I tried, I would inevitably look lacking.
Still, if I showed her I was giving it my all, I felt I wouldn't have to be ashamed even in front of Sia.
So, let's not overthink it and just go.
After all, Sia's true feelings had been all too clear from the moment she came back here to Earth.
Rather than worrying about what Sia would think of me, I'll do my best so that I can stand tall in front of her.
"No reason not to. Let's go now."