#142. …Isn’t it one?
I got an S-class confirmation and left the meeting room with a rather dazed face.
“Huh…”
In fact, there was nothing strange about it.
Because the rank was determined solely by skill.
The current I was comparable to the active S-Class, and in fact, I succeeded in dealing with monsters that even S-Classes struggle with.
However, the combination of the age of 20 and the rank of S rank felt very heterogeneous.
“What is it? What’s the matter.”
As I stopped walking and was immersed in emotion, Sihwa tapped my shoulder with my index finger.
“Oh. I just feel weird.”
“Why.”
“I can’t get used to being an S-class at the age of 20.”
“What are you doing with something like that?”
When I think about it, Sihwa is also an S-class, how could she be so blunt?
“Are you okay?”
“I got paid for what I worked for, so what’s strange?”
I laughed out loud at the reaction that was more dry than I thought.
“Still, great is great. Hunters who were promoted as quickly as we did. I don’t think I remember.”
“Other people may be surprised, but neither me nor you should be surprised.”
Shihwa, who continued to stretch, stretched.
Clearly, I felt like my back was aching because I had been sitting for a long time.
“So. Are you going home right now?”
“Oh. Before I go, I want to see the author.”
“Lee Ji-eun?”
A poem that frowns upon the author’s name as soon as he hears it.
“You’re busy with work, but why don’t you just go today?”
Reaction that looks uneasy just looking at it.
But today, I had an unavoidable circumstance.
“I’ve been waiting for the author to see me since 5 o’clock, and I’m sorry, so I’m going to go see it.”
“…It’s half past eight now?”
Clearly I may be late today, so if I can’t wait, I’ve sent a text message to go first, but the author has not left work yet to say that he will see me.
“My words. But how can I go first because I am tired?”
“Would you like to go with me?”
“No. You go first You must be tired.”
Actually, rather than the problem of fatigue, it was because I felt like I couldn’t even say hello properly because I thought I would be seen from the side.
“Okay. Then see you next time.”
“Oh, you worked hard today.”
After all, the next report was two days later.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that tomorrow is a holiday.
A law that requires handover for everything.
Even if it was an S-class hunter, there was no difference.
I was a case of aspiring hunters who rose to S-class at once.
Perhaps the person who will become a shooter is frantically arranging the contents to guide me by now.
I went down the elevator and arrived at a small park behind the association.
“Jieun-ah!”
I waved her hand towards her as she was almost nodding her as she sat on her bench.
“Master!”
Her eyes lit up at the sound of my words, and she got her body up.
“No. I’ll just go first, so why don’t you listen to me?”
“A. But I was supposed to see you today. You never know when we will see you again.”
“When to see what, when to look. It looks like I will be here tomorrow as well.”
“Huh? Yes? Why?”
“It’s long to say the least… have you eaten?”
The author shakes his head.
“No. I was going to ask you to go eat together after work.”
I feel even more sorry for nothing.
“Then, there is a delicious yakitori restaurant that I know in front of here? Let’s go there.”
Although the restaurants were aware of it, most of the stores were probably going to close soon.
“Yes!”
What’s so good, the author followed me with a smile and chasing after me.
* *
Cheek
The sound of skewers being cooked on a hot fire.
The taste of meat stimulated the sense of smell.
“Didn’t you even eat, Master?”
“There was no end to doing this and that.”
“Tell me something. How have you been?”
“Let me get you a drink. Here you go!”
As the staff approached, I ordered the menu I always ate at this house.
“With that 500…”
When the author raised her head as if asking if you would like to drink, she immediately noticed and continued her words.
“Give me the same thing!”
“Yes, I understand.”
When the staff brought out a drink, I started talking about what had happened in earnest.
The story of going down to Jinhae. The story of encountering a level 6 monster there.
However, I couldn’t tell the story about my sperm being ripped off.
She wasn’t even a wife like her ex, because she didn’t feel the need to even talk about it.
“Wow… So you must have been promoted to S-class catastrophically? Just one time?”
“What. I was lucky.”
“Ac. Then, all of this is given to you by Master! Guide me money!”
I wonder if there was any dissatisfaction with my becoming S-class?
“You waited too long anyway, so I tried to buy it.”
“That’s right. I’m still an apprentice, so they won’t give me a few pennies.”
The author rubs her chin as if it’s unfair.
The slightly puffy cheeks looked pretty cute.
“Isn’t it like that in the original apprenticeship?”
“What do you mean? I hadn’t even tried it.”
It was advice that came from experience, but it was the setting that I am not an experienced person now.
“What. Everyone around me said that.”
“Ah… When did I become a hunter and when did I get ranked…”
It is true that the author’s skills are superior to her peers, but she still had to wait two years to become a hunter who is actually active in the field.
“Don’t worry. By the time you graduate, you will definitely be able to do S-class.”
It was a sincere voice.
If the author had attended the same academy as me in her previous life without an accident, she would have been a great rival along with Sihwa.
“It sounds like a good cheer to hear, but you know that someone of the same age who is an S-class loses energy, right?”
“Then drink alcohol or something.”
I raised my glass high.
“Eat whatever you want today. If you want more alcohol, make more.”
“It’s only been the first day since I got promoted, so can I just be extravagant?”
“Hey. How much do you do here?”
Actually, it wasn’t even that expensive.
A 15-minute walk from the association building, this was a long-established restaurant where only people in the know came.
“Wonderful.”
The author also raised a glass and accepted my toast.
“Hey. It seems that my current situation has been talked about a lot now. What do you have?”
“Me? I’m just doing what I’m asked to do.”
“If you don’t like it, it’s okay to just talk about what’s going on in the association these days.”
I asked her, putting her toasted green onion into her mouth with one of hers.
“The hottest story these days… um… what happened… Ah!”
The author, who seemed to have remembered something, applauded.
“This may not really be a big deal, or it may just be a rumor, right?”
“Yes. Talk comfortably.”
“It is said that humanoid monsters are popping out of the dungeon these days,”
The author covers his mouth with one hand and talks as if it were a secret.
“A. It doesn’t sound like anything. That is.”
First, there were two major errors in that sentence.
First, monsters can only be found in dungeons unless they are above a certain level.
Second is that if humanoid monsters really appeared outside the dungeon, it would have become a clear fact after thorough follow-up measures were taken at the association level, rather than as a rumor or sarcasm.
“Is this what our manager told us to do?”
I thought it was an unrealistic story, but I thought I’d give it a try.
“You know that the new subway line L is being built.”
“You know.”
When was it completed?
As far as I can remember, it was right before or the year after graduating from the academy.
“There were some eyewitnesses who said they saw humanoid monsters underground.”
“A. That’s really nonsense. That.”
The fact that there were eyewitnesses made no sense.
This was because the probability of surviving if ordinary B-class or lower hunters or ordinary people faced a humanoid monster was very low.
“That’s right. When I first heard that sound, I thought it was a bit too much of an urban ghost story MSG, right? But in reality, there was a magical power that appeared on the association observer at dawn and then disappeared, right?”
“As an official record?”
“Yes. Truly official.”
If that’s the case, then there must have been something…
But as far as I can remember, there have never been any incidents of subways and humanoid monsters.
It wasn’t like the time has changed like Diaronia, but it was the first I’d heard of it.
“It’s strange… I can’t do that…”
“So I dispatched personnel there to investigate, but nothing came out.”
“Then the magic is detected only there and the end?”
“Yes.”
“What do the eyewitnesses say?”
“There were a few people wearing black cloaks or something, and then they disappeared.”
“…Isn’t it one?”
“I think so. Of course, it could have been invented by people claiming to be eyewitnesses.”
Watching the skewers as they cook, I fixed my gaze on the cooling flames.
“…Ji Eun-ah.”
“Yes?”
“If someone tells me about it, can you just text me?”
“Isn’t it difficult?”
I had a strong feeling that maybe this also had something to do with me.