Chapter 1

Chapter 1

From now on, I'll live for myself.

"I wish!"

A-rank Hunter. Kim Seol-yeon. With her cry, the air began to freeze in an instant.

"I open the white night and raise the ice palace."

Crystals formed in the white breath she exhaled. Her mana had dropped the temperature in a single breath.

Her signature line, the one I had heard for ten years. No matter the situation, I was never afraid so long as Kim Seol-yeon was with me. Even if what stood before our eyes now was a demon with no way to kill it.

"Not even death shall reach those who enter my palace!"

Kim Seol-yeon's black hair dyed itself pure white. And around her, a palace wrought of immense ice revealed itself.

-KWOOOO!!

And the worst monster to set foot on Earth through a gate rampage. A creature humanity had never once slain in all its history. The thing we call a demon.

Its overwhelming presence and the ice palace Kim Seol-yeon had raised began to clash.

- KWAAANG!!

[Kekeke!]

Then, as if to announce that the demon's time of manifestation in this world had ended, a faint laugh drifted in, and the situation came to a close.

"Seol-yeon!"

Once it seemed over, I went to Kim Seol-yeon. Her skill put an enormous strain on mind and body, after all. The moment right after it ended was when she was most vulnerable.

"You worked hard."

I quickly took out a handkerchief and went to her. This was my role, of course. A place I had kept for ten years, one I would yield to no one.

"Ah. Thanks."

Kim Seol-yeon snatched the handkerchief from me as if it were only natural, then looked around and shouted.

"Situation clear! Check civilian casualties, clean the area, then withdraw!"

"Yes!"

Under Kim Seol-yeon's command, we finished what each of us had to do from our own positions.

And then.

"Seol-yeon. Once the guild report is done, come to Exit 3."

"Why?"

Looking at Kim Seol-yeon, who asked as if puzzled, I laughed like a fool.

"You know, what we promised last time. I reserved that fine dining place you said you wanted to try. Did you forget?"

"Ah..."

She seemed to turn something over, then frowned at me.

"I have plans. Let's push it to next time."

"Next time? I already made the reservation. Last time you said okay."

"Enough. Next time."

Watching Kim Seol-yeon's back as she turned coldly and left the gate, I couldn't say a word. Because.

"Pfft. Acting all high and mighty just because they're lovers."

"Ah. I wish I had an A-rank hunter for a childhood friend too. No ability to speak of, yet calling himself a hunter and pulling in a fat salary like clockwork."

"Hey! Quit loafing and grab the supplies! Every single one of these is worth your monthly pay!"

Because in the guild we belonged to, aside from Kim Seol-yeon, no one was on my side.

**

By the time I finished the hard labor and came home, it was already past ten at night. A natural quitting time for a supporter, but today it felt especially hard.

"Haa."

I sat in front of the sofa, cracked a beer, and set it on the table. If things had gone as they should, I'd be on a pleasant date with my girlfriend at a high-end restaurant right about now.

"I ought to be congratulating her, right?"

I muttered the self-mocking words and took a sip of beer. Without even this, I didn't think I could get through today.

"Kkeuh!"

She used to be a gentle girlfriend who smiled a lot. Somewhere along the way, so much had changed.

"If it was going to be like this, maybe it would've been better not to awaken at all."

Kim Seol-yeon and I awakened at the same time. I thought even that was fate, and devoted myself to her all the more. To keep the promise of that day. But.

Kim Seol-yeon had become an A-rank hunter and was soaring, while I was cracking beer like this in a one-room studio.

-Beep.

Drinking beer alone in the quiet room, I grew gloomy for no good reason and turned on the TV. Just as the celebrities' noisy chatter was starting to lift my sunken mood a little.

The screen changed, and the news came on.

[Breaking news. A-rank Hunter Kim Seol-yeon and S-rank Hunter Kwon Do-hyeok of the Asterion Guild have been caught enjoying a late-night date.]

"Huh?"

That couldn't be. Things had grown distant lately, but we were still lovers. Seol-yeon, cheating?

"Anyway. Those press bastards."

They're not called trash reporters for nothing. If it looks like it'll get views, they inflate things that never happened and run them. I rubbed at my chest, which had grown uneasy for no reason.

"The years we've been together are ten."

Don't become a pathetic man who wavers over a single news flash. I made that resolve and downed the rest of the beer in one go.

"Kkeuh! Let's push through tomorrow too!"

**

Having come in to the guild early in the morning, I was working through the backed-up paperwork.

"Emergency dispatch support costs from the gate rampage, supply receipts are these, B Team standby costs, and they had a healer on standby this time too?"

With so much money moving in this line of work, the paperwork to process was enormous.

One mistake and it would hit the news as a major-guild tax-evasion scandal, so I had to look with both eyes wide open.

"A lot of outside trips..."

Among the many documents, one name stood out. My girlfriend, Kim Seol-yeon. A whole stack of receipts from what she'd spent outside had come out.

'No wonder she's busy.'

She'd become an A-rank hunter in only her mid-twenties. Talent like that, and a beautiful face on top of it. There was no way the people around her would leave her alone.

She was even expected to possibly become an S-rank hunter within five years.

Considering there weren't even ten S-rank hunters in our country, it was an incredible assessment.

Which was why our guild was giving her full support. To what extent? Even the guild master was constantly bowing and scraping to stay on Seol-yeon's good side.

"Haa."

Suddenly the breaking news from yesterday came back to me. A private meeting with the S-rank hunter currently enjoying the greatest popularity.

This was probably also a photo taken during an outside trip for business between guilds.

'Here it is.'

Looking at the receipts and records from the past month, she had eaten with Kwon Do-hyeok, the S-rank hunter of the Asterion Guild, eight times.

'Eight times is a bit much?'

Eight times in a month meant they'd met twice a week. More than she'd met me, her boyfriend.

"..."

But nothing was certain yet. Thinking that, I went back to the remaining paperwork.

By the time I'd cleared most of the mountain of documents. Someone tapped my shoulder.

"Still not finished?"

It was Kim Chang-hun, who joined the same year as me. A talent who'd been rising fast lately and had even made team leader. There was no reason for this guy to come looking for me.

"What's this about?"

He was the one who picked fights over every little thing, claiming I got special treatment just for being Kim Seol-yeon's boyfriend.

Because of that, nothing good was ever going to come out of Kim Chang-hun. Which was why he had never bothered to come find me before.

"I saw the news yesterday. If you broke up, you should say so. We're still same-year hires, aren't we?"

"We didn't break up?"

"What?"

I already knew what Kim Chang-hun was talking about. From the start, no one at Deungcheon Guild thought well of me. A parachute hire sucking honey thanks to a capable girlfriend.

That was exactly the extent of how I was judged.

Anyway, Kim Chang-hun, looking down at me with a displeased face, opened his mouth.

"You're saying you're still dating, even now?"

"Yeah."

"Haa..."

Sighing, hand to his forehead, Kim Chang-hun glared at me with contempt. It was a situation I was already used to, so I kept a calm face.

"A man playing kept husband like that — aren't you ashamed?"

"I've never thought of myself as a kept husband?"

Every supply and every tax filing a gate raid required. The government's rewards for a completed raid, and the income tax that followed.

I was handling all the support work so the hunters could focus wholly on clearing gates.

Only for the girlfriend I loved.

"You do the same work as the other office staff, but the pay is different. Isn't that right?"

"I'm just receiving the base salary given to hunters?"

"You, a hunter? Really? You think that?"

I was sick of it. Kim Chang-hun's gaze. The coworkers whispering without a word.

Even so, the only reason I could endure was Seol-yeon. I had given everything, only for her. In truth, I don't think of it as sacrifice.

Because Seol-yeon's happiness was my happiness.

"If you don't want to believe it, then don't. If it really eats at you, report it to the Association."

In the first place, it was the Association that recognized my hunter qualification. Getting a hunter qualification recognized on false grounds carried an extremely heavy punishment.

On top of that, it would strike directly at the Association's credibility. Kim Chang-hun was not someone who didn't know that.

"...Is that so?"

Kim Chang-hun looked down at me with one corner of his mouth pulled up, then turned his back and disappeared.

When I glanced around, the other guild members who had been watching our argument hastily turned their heads.

'There's no one on my side anywhere.'

I knew it, but today my chest felt especially hollow. In this mood I didn't think I could finish the remaining work, so I headed outside for a bit.

'Have some coffee. Need a change of mood.'

Leaving behind the pile of documents filling my desk — overtime already certain for today — I headed to the first floor of the guild building.

And I witnessed a scene I couldn't believe.

"Uh...?"

My girlfriend was smiling as if happy, arm in arm with a man I didn't know. And at the very edge of my vision, in a corner of the cafe, Kim Chang-hun stood with his arms crossed, the look of a man who had gotten exactly what he wanted.

This was not the moment to worry about Kim Chang-hun. I forced a smile and approached my girlfriend. There had to be some misunderstanding. Right?

"Mind explaining what's going on?"

She must have clearly seen me coming from a distance, yet Kim Seol-yeon's expression was calm. As if asking what the problem was.

"Can't you tell just by looking? How long has it been since we ended, and you're still clinging like this?"

"Ended? When? Why are you suddenly like this?"

"Haa."

Kim Seol-yeon looked at me with a contemptuous face, as if she were sick of the sight, then spread her hand wide and interlaced her fingers with the man I didn't know.

"Right now! Satisfied?"

"Ah...?"

Until not long ago, we had loved each other. It must have been so. And yet. What was this scene.

Kim Seol-yeon, looking at me with her face twisted as if she were seeing filth. Guild members crossing their arms as if amused, or whispering into each other's ears.

In the middle of it all, I asked her in a trembling voice.

"We promised we'd go forward together. That day, during the gate rampage."

The day we awakened together. We promised to rely on each other and help until we became S-rank hunters. I had never once forgotten the promise of that day.

"Back then I thought you'd awakened too, oppa. But you didn't, did you?"

"What are you saying? I awakened too. I told you the White Night Ice Palace you used was granted by my Polarity skill."

"That again?"

Kim Seol-yeon's brow furrowed as she glanced around. Then she opened her mouth with a twisted smile.

"That Polarity skill of yours is EX-rank, you said? There isn't a skill of that grade anywhere in the world. And even if you really did awaken a supporter skill...!"

As if she had been deceived all this time, Kim Seol-yeon raised her voice with an aggrieved face and glared at me.

"Why do you still only have one skill, oppa? After clearing so many gates? Huh? Answer me!"

"I told you. When I first granted you the Polarity skill, I also gave you all the experience..."

"There is no skill like that anywhere in the world! Do I still look like a kid who'd fall for a lie like that!? Do I look easy?!"

I never thought she would doubt me. Even if every guild member, even the internet, cursed me as a kept husband, I thought Kim Seol-yeon alone was on my side.

Sincerely. So I decided to prove it. If I showed her my skill was real, we could go back to how we were.

"Alright. I'll show you. My skill..."

"Aigoo. How long are we supposed to just stand here and watch? Huh?"

Then the man whose fingers were interlaced with Kim Seol-yeon's stepped abruptly in front of me. Bronze skin, a massive frame a full head taller than mine, eyes slanted slightly upward, and a mouth that seemed to sneer.

The ace of the Asterion Guild. S-rank Hunter Kwon Do-hyeok.

"I'm telling you nicely, so get lost now. Seol-yeon is mine. She's been with me since last night, you know? You understand what that means?"

"So?"

I still had not abandoned my faith in her. I had spent a night with her too. But nothing had happened. Because Kim Seol-yeon was that kind of woman.

One who kept her purity until marriage, noble and pure...

"Nn♡"

A moan and an expression of hers I was seeing for the first time. And Kwon Do-hyeok's contemptuous gaze on top of it. I couldn't see, just then, where Kwon Do-hyeok's hand was pointed.

Only.

"So? You don't know what it means? Really?"

The sight of her, face flushed red, head lowered, filled my vision.

"It's not, right? Seol-yeon. Huh?"

I wanted to hear it from her, not from Kwon Do-hyeok. It couldn't be. I had devoted myself for over ten years. I had given everything, only for your happiness.

You wouldn't betray me, would you?

But as if to betray that expectation, Kim Seol-yeon lifted her head. An expression of hers I had never once seen filled my vision.

"Ah..."

There was no answer. But it was an expression more certain than an answer. It felt as if everything I had believed until now had been denied.

In the illusion that the world was breaking, Kwon Do-hyeok's voice rang in my ear.

"You've sucked honey on lies for ten years — that's enough, isn't it? Don't you have a conscience?"

Lies? Conscience? I had never once spoken a lie. I had lived hard so I would never become a burden to her, who was always rising.

Looking up at the sky, I had never for a single moment thought myself ashamed.

"If you understand, get lost."

I don't remember what happened after that. I left the building and ran without end. Ran, and kept running.

And so night came, and I collapsed in an empty alley and cried until my throat went hoarse.

The musty smell of a pile of trash brushing the tip of my nose, my hand braced on a floor covered in some unknown liquid, until my throat went hoarse.

Until the moon set and the sun rose.

"Aa..."

Overnight the white dress shirt had yellowed and smelled stale, and the tie was nowhere to be seen.

My throat was hoarse, every breath hurting as if a needle were stuck in it, and my body hung limp like cotton soaked through.

"Yeah. I get it."

Only now did I grasp reality. In the end, I had been thrown away. Even after devoting everything until Kim Seol-yeon went from an F-rank hunter to an A-rank.

Then.

"Now give it back."

She wouldn't hear it, but just as she had done. I would take it back too.

"Polarity release. Designated target, Kim Seol-yeon."

Ten years ago. A blessing given to us when we were still minors. Awakening as hunters. Because of that, we believed we would be together for life.

I had never once imagined a future like this.

-Ding!

[The Polarity target designation has been released.]

"I'm tired of living like a sucker."

From now on, I'll live for myself.