Chapter 308

Anyway, the damage was limited to his small intestine and a few bones, so speaking was no problem.

"This thing only stops once it hits someone."

Still, he wasn't sure whether even that explanation would be enough. Looking at the blue crystal that had turned a human life into something resembling meat skewered straight through the heart, Gryeo couldn't help but think.

"This might end up exposing your lack of physical ability too."

If it came out here that he was actually F-rank... then everything would unravel at once like a hopelessly tangled skein of yarn—the fact that he had exaggerated his own value to pocket three billion won every month, hurled abuse at someone a full six ranks above him, and repeatedly tried to distort people's perceptions by belittling that person's abilities.

"Hmph. Judging from the selflessness he showed back at the Incheon sandfields, Jung Haseong doesn't seem like the type to kill someone just because he was deceived."

That was what worried him.

"But I really think he'd file an actual lawsuit..."

For once, Haseong's habit of drawing a firm line between public and private matters became a very real concern. Gryeo had heard that punishments for fraud were relatively lenient in South Korea, but if a proper investigation were launched, wouldn't he end up having to return the hundreds of billions he'd received over the years?

"Hmm."

To make matters worse, he had already burned through all his money in Japan and couldn't even afford to move out right now. His conscience pricked at him a little, but there was nothing to be done. Gryeo decided that before revealing the truth, he should at least set aside enough money to cover a possible settlement with Jung Haseong, just in case.

With that, he pushed the problem out of his mind.

"Let's patch this up just enough and head home. I need to get back quickly and eat bibimbap."

Then something unexpected happened.

"Hunter Kim!"

"Huh?"

The national hero's face went deathly pale.

He stopped anyone from pulling the spear out of Gryeo's body and, in a sudden flurry of movement, tried to carry his comrade in the proper horizontal position—as though following a medical emergency manual to the letter—and rush him straight to the hospital.

***

A dozen or so minutes later.

"I'm fine."

In front of the open gate.

"I'm really fine, okay? Hey, Rank #1. Do I seriously have to knock you unconscious right here before you'll believe me?"

Like many otherworldly spaces, the exit of the [Tower of a Hundred People] often appeared in a completely different location from its entrance coordinates. This time, it seemed to have opened somewhere on a hill in Sejong City.

Night had already fallen outside.

In the dim, damp forest, a phrase briefly came to mind.

Peter, must I truly walk on water before you believe me?

That was how much Korea's current fourth S-rank hunter was struggling against the other man's disbelief.

"I used a potion, didn't I? Look. See? My spine's back where it belongs. I'm recovered enough to let someone ride me like a horse!"

Gryeo had, of course, expected Jung Haseong to react badly to seeing him injured.

After all the countless examples he'd witnessed back on Earth, he would have been an idiot not to notice the pattern by now.

He had simply memorized those reactions mechanically.

As expected, he still couldn't truly understand the nature behind them.

"It's not as though hunters getting injured while hunting beasts is something that only happens in modern times... so why did he panic like he'd lost his mind?"

At this point, the man's fragile mental fortitude was almost pitiful.

Having finished the restoration technique, Gryeo narrowed one eye for a moment to bring his vision back into focus.

And by the time his thoughts had more or less settled—

Sssk.

The blond man suddenly bent at the waist and asked him a question.

"Are you crying?"

Haseong reacted fiercely to the utterly casual tone, as though he were dealing with some antisocial creature completely devoid of empathy.

"Is that really something you can say so casually? A Hunter who went into the raid with us just collapsed with his insides pierced through—of course a person would be horrified! No, it's only natural to be horrified!"

"Surprising."

For reference, Earth's rulers tended to secrete more bodily fluids even when they were merely angry.

"If the appraisal skill gave you results like that, you should've told me. Then I would've tried my best to minimize the damage myself. How...?"

The young man's voice caught, and he stopped for a moment.

"How can I..."

He couldn't bring himself to finish.

The image of his comrade lying collapsed on the ground with a spear still driven through his body refused to leave his mind.

How could anyone remember something like that calmly?

"I'm not sure whether I should say this."

"..."

"But honestly, Hunter-nim, sometimes you really do seem like a crazy person. Seriously. Truly."

From an Alphauri's perspective, of course, Jung Ha-seong—with his extreme emotional fluctuations—seemed far closer to being the actual lunatic.

Naturally, Gryeo didn't say that out loud.

The other challengers already looked shocked enough.

"Jung Haseong."

Instead, Gryeo simply tried to defuse the situation by changing the subject.

He kept repeating that he was fine until the other man seemed to calm down somewhat, then decided it was finally time to leave.

"Alright, then that's settled. I'm heading down first. Just so you know, I'll be getting home late tonight."

"Yes?"

"...I was just planning to stop by the Hunter Association for a bit."

It was already nighttime in Korea, but every branch of the Hunter Association had staff working night shifts, so that wasn't much of an issue.

"Since I'm already thinking about it, I should cross-check this with the machine at the Sejong City Pole Corporation. Even older measuring devices display Aw values down to the decimal point. And, as much as I hate it, if I want to verify this hypothesis, I have to test it immediately after something like this happens..."

But Gryeo couldn't even begin the experiment he'd planned.

"Why... why are you leaving?"

The Rank #1 Hunter, whom he'd thought had finally calmed down, stepped in front of him again.

"Do you want me to report this separately to the government or something? H-Hey, please don't do that. Let's just go to the emergency room first."

"Emergency room?"

"Go to a proper hospital and get your spinal nerves examined or something, Hunter Kim Gryeo. Come on. No matter how good the potion you used was, you can never be completely sure. I'll even drive you there..."

A hospital.

From Kim Gryeo's perspective, Earth-style medical facilities were nothing short of unbearable.

Fine. Suppose another tumor appeared in his lungs. That wouldn't be much of a problem.

But this case involved a mysterious pilot using magic to operate someone else's corpse.

If the body were examined thoroughly, there was a high chance the doctors would discover discrepancies in the mechanisms maintaining it.

In short, they'd discover the alien.

"Worse, maybe not just one person, but an unspecified number of people? That's troublesome."

So, in order to avoid being forcibly hospitalized, Gryeo grabbed the other man by the shoulder and began trying to persuade him.

"Haseong-ah."

In a sense, this was a declaration he would eventually have had to make anyway, if only to naturally avoid keeping an old promise.

"Let's stop dancing around the issue and draw a proper line this time."

"Yes?"

"This is what I think. In the end, a person's body is theirs to control. I've already explained clearly why I'm fine, so why can't you accept that and keep trying to force your own opinion on me?"

"...I—"

"Do I look like X to you?"

Choosing deliberately harsh words to strengthen the persuasive effect was merely an added bonus.

"Huh? So you're nagging me this much because you're afraid I might die from this?"

"N-No. Never."

"But Jung Haseong, I once read somewhere that the goal of education in this world is independence."

"Independence?"

"Even if your private tutor dies of sepsis right here, or somehow ends up becoming a permanent member of the team later."

"..."

"Either way, lifelong relationships are rare in this world. You shouldn't spend your life worrying too much about other people. You need to prepare yourself to stand on your own."

There was also a subtle implication that the issue of becoming a permanent team member might be resolved sooner than expected.

"...You have to. Whenever I watch you quietly, it feels like you think of me as some kind of one-and-only milestone in your life. That's why I'm saying this."

He was a scholar, after all.

His ability to recognize patterns in repeated situations wasn't poor.

So as time passed, Kim Gryeo gradually began making deductions that drew closer and closer to the truth.

"Otherwise, I wouldn't be making such a fuss over some kid getting hurt, especially one from a family I don't even know."

"That's..."

"Don't live your life like that."

The words that came out near the end sounded rather harsh at first, but they weren't actually meant to wound.

"Don't depend too much on other people or expect too much from them. I've seen someone get stabbed in the back and die because of that."

Perhaps in this world, there would be no one who truly understood you.

Unless, absurdly enough, that someone happened to be an alien.

Gryeo judged that this was more than enough to warmly convey the message that he had no intention of being hospitalized.

So he lightly patted Haseong's shoulder and walked away alone, convinced that his advice had gotten through.

No.

More precisely, he tried to walk away.

But there was still one important matter left to discuss, so he couldn't quite end the conversation there.

"Uh... but even though I just said all that, could I stay at your place just a little longer before moving out?"

"Oh, the house."

"I'm very particular about auspicious locations and my fortune and fate. So whenever I move, I have to hire both a feng shui expert and a shaman. That's why moving takes me longer than it does most people."

"Yes?"

"...No. Forget it. I was joking."

Damn it.

He'd happened to find that chat AI online and had been certain this excuse would work, but had it actually been some scam site after all?

And that was how the day ended.

"Hwam."

This was an administrative welfare center in Mapo-gu.

After clearing the [Tower of a Hundred People] in Sejong City, I stopped by the Hunter Association in the evening and conducted an internal mana analysis. Once I'd gathered the necessary data, I returned to Seoul.

And today, this was the next place on my schedule after finishing all of that.

Well, it wasn't exactly urgent.

I simply had some spare time, so I figured I might as well take care of it while I was here.

In the blink of an eye, autumn was already just around the corner.

Once the cold winds started blowing, the magical theory lectures would surely be over, so how was I supposed to get out of forming a team?

I wanted Seo Esther included as well, so perhaps I should ask them to postpone it for another six months on the grounds that I still had classes to teach...

It was a weekday, after all.

And since the time wasn't particularly convenient for office workers, the administrative welfare center was quieter than expected.

These days, with automated kiosks and mobile applications becoming more advanced, fewer people came all the way here just to have documents issued.

Maybe that was why the place felt even emptier.

But do you know what an eighty-year-old man and an alien have in common?

"They're both digitally helpless."

Good grief.

In the past, simply changing clothes had been enough to keep people from recognizing me.

Right now, I was wearing a black T-shirt from an SPA brand that I'd gotten while staying in a room at Seoul Neo Hospital.

And yet, even without a suit, people passing by were already sneaking glances at me.

They had clearly recognized who I was.

"Huh? Isn't that S-rank Hunter Kim Gryeo?"

Worse still, even the employee sitting at the integrated civil service desk suddenly stood up and bowed in greeting.

"No matter how I think about it, I've become far too famous."

I genuinely felt like changing my face and disappearing on the spot.

Unfortunately, I still didn't fully understand this world's standards of appearance, so even if I took the risk and reshaped my flesh completely, there was no guarantee the result would turn out well.

And even if the cosmetic transformation succeeded, that would create another problem.

"Phew..."

Really, how was anyone supposed to trust Kang Chang-ho?

That mammal had exactly the sort of personality that made it entirely believable for him to suddenly reverse his position after declaring that he wouldn't interfere anymore.

On top of that, if I started behaving suspiciously—say, by magically altering my face and trying to conceal my identity—there was a very real chance he'd come back, say, "You're a Gisimche, aren't you?" and try to cave in my skull.

Anyway, for several reasons, making any rash move right now would be difficult.

In the end, every plan was forcibly put on hold for the same reason.

A lack of power.

On hold.

On hold.

"Hmm."

Still, even Kang Changho probably wouldn't find behavior of this level particularly suspicious.

"Hello. Nice to meet you. It's nothing important. I just came to have some documents issued."

I asked the employee at the desk a few questions and requested every kind of document he said was available.

Before long, I was holding papers labeled Resident Registration Certificate, Resident Registration Transcript, and Family Relationship Certificate.

From what I'd learned after doing a little research, Earth's laws were complicated enough that even obtaining these documents might not reveal the other person's address.

"So they really do charge you when you get these documents in person. Good thing I brought my wallet."

Even if this failed, there were countless other ways to locate the target, so it didn't matter.

More importantly, this bloodstream was already full of traceable information anyway.

In any case, finding her should be easy.

Just as it had been easy for her to find me.

[Name]

[Lee Hwayoung]

We are family.

"Hmm."

But right now, my magic was only at F-rank.

Even if I met her now, there wasn't much I could actually do.

To make the kind of reunion I had in mind a reality, I would need a considerable amount of magical power. ℯ

So I had to regain my status as quickly as possible.

I brought my thoughts to an end with a faint, peculiar smile.

"It looks like some complicated foreign language, but I can still understand all of it. Kim Gryeo, you sly thing. You actually remembered quite a lot of Chinese characters."

Thanks to my recent research, I seemed to have found a plausible method.

Which meant I absolutely couldn't quit this damned Hunter job.

At least not yet.

"With this level of brain function, wouldn't I have passed the correctional officer exam too—if I'd only had the time?"

For now, I'd finished everything I needed to do today.

So I should just go eat a proper meal and get some rest.