Ji-hoon packed up his things.
Poppy and Choco shrank themselves to help him.
Baek Kang-hyeon watched them, then cautiously asked,
“Um, Hunter Ji-hoon?”
“Yes, Branch Director?”
“Are we really just leaving?”
With the Boss still like that?
Ji-hoon nodded at Baek Kang-hyeon’s question.
“Yes. There’s no answer right now, so let’s run first and think about it later.”
“What are you talking about...!? If we leave the Boss alone, it might enter the human world! A Gate Collapse will occur!”
“You’ve finally lost your mind, haven’t you? You want us to leave the Boss behind and go? What if it attacks us and charges into the real world...!!!”
“A collapse? Charge out?”
Ji-hoon pointed at the white serpent, whose face was flushed with embarrassment as she lay coiled around the restrained Dark Knight.
“Her?”
“Uh....”
“...Ahem.”
“The Boss Monster just needs to stay inside, right?”
“That’s... true, but....”
“The Dark Knight can’t move, can it?”
The Dark Knight struggled.
[Remain still. Otherwise, this lady’s fangs shall pierce you.]
Jörmungandr—Dubu—scolded the Dark Knight.
Poppy and Choco nodded.
“Don’t worry. Let’s go. Come on, let’s hurry out and get something to eat.”
“Uh, uh, w-wait. This is, uh....”
Can we really do this?
Ignoring Baek Kang-hyeon’s mutter, Ji-hoon guided the Hunters toward the Gate’s exit.
“Mr. Ji-hoon, this will be all right... won’t it?”
“Little Brother, can we really leave?”
Kim Ji-eun and Kang Gi-tae, both members of Team C, asked him as well.
Kim Jin-woo, still panting from the battle, let out a hollow laugh and said that this was his first time experiencing anything like it.
“Ha, haha... This Gate truly is unpredictable.”
Under Baek Kang-hyeon and Jin Seo-yoon’s direction, the Hunters headed toward the Gate’s exit.
After confirming that a considerable number of people had left, Ji-hoon cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted.
“Dubu!!!!”
[Hmph! What is it, Big Brother?]
“We’ll give you some space! Do what you need to do!”
Dubu’s head swayed slightly.
“You need some time, right? I’ll give you plenty!”
That was right.
Time soothed all touchiness.
Did adolescence not require time as well?
This was the same sort of thing.
Just as she had at Hell Farm, Dubu would need time now too.
Ji-hoon pulled one of Poppy’s feathers from his necklace.
“Dubu, hold on to this. Let me know if an emergency comes up.”
[Big Brother....]
“This is cheese and jerky I made. Eat them if you get hungry.”
[...H-hmph. Do you think I will thank you?]
“When have I ever given you something expecting that?”
Ji-hoon grinned.
Dubu turned her head slightly and cleared her throat.
[A-all right. If I get hungry, I may or may not eat them.]
“Good, good. Then I’ll come back around the same time tomorrow! Get some rest!”
After giving Dubu plenty of things, Ji-hoon said,
“Let’s go~ Ah, I’m exhausted.”
[Let us go, Big Brother. Time truly is the best medicine for Dubu.]
[Big Sister is seriously exhausting. Good grief.]
“Choco, shh. Dubu might hear you.”
Ji-hoon leisurely walked toward the Gate’s exit with Poppy and Choco.
Baek Kang-hyeon and Jin Seo-yoon, who had watched them as if entranced, followed suit.
“Uh, uh, w-wait for us, Mr. Ji-hoon!”
They hurriedly escaped from the Gate.
***
Yoon Do-ha, who had watched and heard everything, said,
“They... ran from a Gate?”
“Kahahahahahaha!”
Yoon Do-ha clutched his stomach and doubled over with laughter.
They had abandoned the Boss and emerged from the Gate.
It was unprecedented.
“Variables. The variables are truly far too fascinating!”
A Mutation Gate.
A mutated Monster.
And Lee Ji-hoon.
“Haa, I find myself growing ever more curious about you.”
Yoon Do-ha’s eyes remained fixed on the monitor as if glued there.
They stayed that way until Baek Kang-hyeon, Jin Seo-yoon, and the evacuated Hunters returned.
***
“Mmm, delicious! This is really a combat ration? Wow, this is completely different from when I went into the army!”
The Hunters returned to the Awakened Management Bureau Hunter Training Center.
Ji-hoon had told Baek Kang-hyeon he was hungry and asked for food, so Baek Kang-hyeon hurriedly brought out combat rations.
“Back in our day, all we had was bone-dry ration bread, insanely sweet and salty stir-fried anchovies, and rice as hard as rice cake.”
“Hahaha. Come to think of it, you are a Hundred-Year Returnee, Mr. Ji-hoon.”
Baek Kang-hyeon smiled at Ji-hoon.
“I heard Hunter Baek Kang-hyeon had a minion tagging along with him. I guess it was true.”
“How is that possible when he’s F-rank?”
“I heard he has the lowest mana reserve ever recorded, so it’s safe for him to get close to that Monster.”
“Oh, so he’s like a stable hand?”
“I guess so. He has a Taming Skill too, so it seems he can communicate with it to some degree.”
“Wow, that F-rank really struck it lucky.”
“I’m jealous. He’ll probably get a huge bonus too, right?”
“That must be how he got equipment like that. Look, it has to be at least A-rank.”
All kinds of ridiculous rumors were spreading everywhere.
Ji-hoon did his best to ignore them and asked Baek Kang-hyeon,
“How’s the Gate?”
Baek Kang-hyeon checked the live footage he had received from Yoon Do-ha.
“The Gate is still holding.”
There did not seem to be any problems yet.
It looked as though it could hold for about a day at this rate.
“The Dark Knight is still restrained inside. However....”
Jin Seo-yoon trailed off.
“The mana level is rising abnormally.”
“...Rising?”
Nod.
“The mana density throughout the Gate keeps increasing. Once it exceeds a certain threshold....”
“...A Gate Collapse.”
A Gate collapsed the moment the mana exceeded what it could contain.
That was why the Boss Monster normally had to be defeated inside the Gate, but....
“It’ll be fine.”
Ji-hoon casually shook the last crumbs from the combat ration into his mouth.
“It’ll be fine...?”
“Yes. Dubu releases quite a lot of mana when she sheds.”
“Right. Come to think of it, I wanted to ask. How do you know her? No, just what is that serpent?”
“Hmm....”
Ji-hoon fell into thought at Jin Seo-yoon’s question.
Should I tell her or not?
[Big Brother, that woman cannot be trusted.]
She really cannot.
She kidnapped me and even tried to take me away by force.
[That woman is arrogant and unpleasant. I hate her. If you permit it, I will crush her immediately.]
Even setting aside Poppy and Choco’s hostility toward her, Ji-hoon could not tell Jin Seo-yoon too much.
When he gave Baek Kang-hyeon a subtle look, Baek Kang-hyeon said,
“We knew about her because she was the friend Choco mentioned at the previous Gate. It seems he held a simple conversation with her through his Taming Skill.”
“Hmm....”
Jin Seo-yoon narrowed her eyes and glared at Ji-hoon.
“Hmmmm....”
“Wh-what’s wrong with you?”
Jin Seo-yoon’s face moved to within an inch of Ji-hoon’s nose.
They were close enough for him to feel her breath.
Ji-hoon was the first to pull back.
“Oh, come on!”
“I don’t know anymore! Fine, we’ll go with that!”
No matter how she considered it, he was suspicious, but without evidence, she had nothing to say.
Jin Seo-yoon looked around at the assembled Hunters and propped her chin on her hand.
“So, what are we going to do?”
At her question about whether he had a plan, Ji-hoon took out his phone.
Baek Kang-hyeon and Jin Seo-yoon focused their attention on him.
He has something.
He must have saved something on his phone, or there’s something he wants to show us.
As the two thought that, Ji-hoon asked them,
“Why? Do you two want to play a game too?”
“...What?”
“A game...?”
“Yes. I told you, let’s play. There’s nothing to do today anyway. She won’t finish shedding until tomorrow.”
“No matter what, this is far too reckless! Haven’t you simply given up...!?”
Just as Jin Seo-yoon was about to shout—
WHOOOOSH—
The King of Griffins’ mana constricted her throat.
“Ngh...!”
“Excuse me. Did I say I’d given up?”
GRIT—
Jin Seo-yoon bit down hard on her lip.
“Anyone would think you’d given up!”
“I’m sorry if it looked that way. But....”
Ji-hoon stroked the accessories made from Poppy’s feather and Choco’s Spines.
“Dubu really won’t listen to us until she finishes shedding.”
“How do you know that!?”
“Guild Master Jin Seo-yoon, could you meet your boyfriend after going a month without washing and looking filthy?”
Jin Seo-yoon blinked at the question, then waved her hands in embarrassment.
“I-I don’t have a boyfriend!”
“It’s hypothetical. Don’t you know what IF means? IF.”
“W-well... I suppose I’d wash before going out...?”
Ji-hoon smiled.
“Dubu is the same. She may be a Monster, but she has her own philosophy.”
In other words.
A Monster had met someone she liked.
But because she had not finished shedding, her face was a mess.
She was furious about it, so they had to wait until she had finished grooming herself.
“What is she, some girl from a romance comic...!?”
“Dubu is a girl.”
What is that supposed to mean now?
Jörmungandr is a girl...?
[Dubu was also an avid reader of Helltoon and Hellpage at Hell Farm....]
[Big Sister is a total fanatic.]
At Hell Farm, Dubu had been an avid web novel and webtoon fan... no, an addict.
Historical stories were her particular favorite.
That was why she possessed the sensibilities of a human girl.
Why did Hell have things resembling human civilization?
The Demons had imitated human culture and made identical versions.
Many Demons actually experienced human society as well.
“Anyway, it’s about protecting my little sister’s girlish sensibilities~ That’s all.”
“This has been one astonishing revelation after another.”
Baek Kang-hyeon rose from his seat.
“Where are you going?”
“There’s nothing else to do, so I might as well train. Guild Master Jin Seo-yoon, I’d like you to spar with me.”
“Ha... fine. I don’t have anything else to do either.”
And so, the two S-rank Hunters left to spar.
“Poppy.”
[Yes, Big Brother.]
“What did Dubu like?”
[Dubu does not like snacks, Big Brother. She even fasts to lose weight.]
“Other than food?”
[Hmm....]
At that moment, Choco shot his hand into the air.
[I got praised when I made her a necklace out of Hell Farm weeds before!]
“You made things like that out of weeds?”
[Big Sister reacted pretty well!]
Right, right. You made things like that out of weeds....
That was it.
Girlish sensibilities.
If this counted as appealing to girlish sensibilities, would it work?
That night, Ji-hoon stayed up to make a gift for Dubu.
***
The next day, the Hunters returned to the Gate.
“...We’re fucked.”
They stared in disbelief after discovering two changes.
First, Dubu had finished shedding and had become truly beautiful.
And second....
[Hehe... Big Brother, the thing is....]
“You... what did you do to the Boss?”
Hehehehe.
[My mana exploded while I was shedding, and it got caught in the blast....]
[Little Sister... should you not have controlled your strength?]
[I-I tried to control it too! Do you think I wanted to kill it? It was that weakling’s fault for being so frail! Hmph!]
The Dark Knight’s corpse had been reduced to powder, leaving only its helmet behind.
“...Then why hasn’t the Gate been cleared...?”
Silence followed.
Jin Seo-yoon was the first to react.
“That doesn’t make sense.... If the Boss is dead....”
“The Gate should normally close.”
Baek Kang-hyeon finished her thought.
At that moment—
WHOOOOSH—
The mana flowing through the Gate changed unmistakably.
This was not ‘residual mana.’
It writhed as if it were alive—
“I don’t think... this is over.”
Jin Seo-yoon spoke in a low voice.
Baek Kang-hyeon’s eyes widened as he reached for his scabbard.
Ji-hoon, on the other hand, said nothing.
He merely said,
“...Get ready, Poppy.”
[Yes, Big Brother.]
Poppy’s feathers stood on end.
“The Gate... is moving.”
RUMBLE—
The Gate distorted once more.