Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Her Secret

[Name: Kim Eun-ji

Age: 20

Skills: Mind's Eye (B) -> Violet Heavenly Eye (grade unmeasurable), Acceleration (C)]

Kim Eun-ji was looking at the translucent status window floating before her eyes. A hunter holding a B-rank skill from the start was extremely rare.

Mind's Eye in particular was rare worldwide, and in Korea there were few who knew its value.

That was what she had heard from Lee Mi-seon. For Kim Eun-ji, it had not felt like that.

'It's not a combat type.'

She could see the flow of mana in more detail. The eyes with which she saw the world had grown a little keener.

But her body could not keep up. Fortunately, the Acceleration skill she gained second offset that weakness.

Even so, because it was not a combat type, she had not drawn much attention for a hunter holding a B-rank skill.

'I brought down a demon?'

A transcendent being the whole world had never once killed. And so humanity called this a demon.

Without reaching a realm like a god's, no one can win. The best humanity can do now is minimize the damage during the time a demon can remain in this world.

There were quite a few top hunters who ignored that, grew arrogant in their own skill, and lost their lives. And yet.

[Kikiki...]

An achievement no one in all humanity had managed, Kim Eun-ji had done. At that fact, her eyes, which should have been half-lidded, opened wide.

In her vision she saw the demon's remains rolling on the ground. With the gate's vanishing, it was turning to dust little by little, a thoroughly shabby sight.

Enough to make her doubt whether this thing was really the transcendent being that had thrown humanity into fear.

"Wa..."

Even now, the intense mana filling her whole body made it feel like she might not keep her head. The feeling that if her focus slipped even a little, a huge explosion would happen.

And at the center of this intense mana were her eyes.

'Violet Heavenly Eye.'

The skill window said grade unmeasurable. A phrase she had never once heard. This was the EX-rank supporter skill Lee Si-u had spoken of.

'He called it Polarity.'

Now she could tell what it meant. Effort that coughs blood, pain that shaves bone. And if luck enough for heaven to help comes along with it, a realm one will reach someday.

Brief as it was, it had taken Kim Eun-ji to a transcendent realm.

'I can become this strong?'

With a single motion of the hand. Talent that can kill the worst monster to threaten humanity, in me?

"Huht."

A rosy future China would revere, America would fear, and Japan would submit to rose in her mind, and a smile formed at Kim Eun-ji's mouth.

She had never thought herself that great. Kim Eun-ji only wanted to become the kind of hunter someone would want to support even if they offered everything.

"Huh?"

In that moment, Kim Eun-ji noticed. Far too late. The best supporter in the world, in her opinion, right now.

"Eun-ji. You worked hard. That's incredible?"

Was coming toward Kim Eun-ji with a clear smile.

"Ah...?"

"Yes?"

At Lee Si-u tilting his head and asking back, Kim Eun-ji's face reddened. He might already have noticed. But she didn't want to be noticed.

In a contradictory feeling even she could not understand, the moment her brain passed its limit.

-Sway.

"Huh?"

The strength left her legs. No, strength would not enter her whole body. With the feeling of floating, as if it were not her own body, Kim Eun-ji's body fell toward the ground.

"Aigoo."

Fortunately, as if he had expected it, Lee Si-u reached out an arm and wrapped her body.

'Aaaak!'

Wrapped in Lee Si-u's firm arm, Kim Eun-ji screamed inside. Fortunately it did not show on the outside. She did not even have the strength to change her expression.

"Because of the Polarity skill, you won't be able to move your body for a while. If there were a healer, you could recover quickly, but."

Lee Si-u said something, but it did not reach Kim Eun-ji's ears. Her state right now.

'Good smell. A man's body. Muscular. Handsome.'

Her favorite hunter, whom she had been a fan of for a long time, was right in front of her nose, so she could not come to her senses.

'It was so unreal it didn't feel real.'

That Lee Si-u would work at her guild. The dream of becoming the best hunter, receiving the support from Lee Si-u she had wished and wished for.

She had thought it only a dream of some spring day, and had not thought it real.

'It's actually real?!'

Kim Eun-ji had transcended her limit with an EX-rank supporter skill. But there was a fact more important to her.

'From now on, I'm working alone with Lee Si-u, just the two of us?!'

Two years since becoming a hunter. Kim Eun-ji, who had completely forgotten the two members she had shared life and death with, lost consciousness from the fatigue of Polarity and dopamine past her limit.

"You worked hard."

Smiling as she heard her favorite hunter's soft voice was her last memory.

**

"Hmm..."

Saebit Guild's finances were not good, so we couldn't call a healer. In the end, Kim Eun-ji was to rest at the lodging.

I was told Guild Master Lee Mi-seon would handle the administrative work for this dispatch.

So I took Kim Eun-ji to the lodging the guild master had told me.

With a healer she would recover quickly, but there was no urgent work, and she wasn't wounded, so it should be fine.

-Beep beep beep.

Whether they were treating them decently, I entered the code of a neatly managed high-rise officetel and went into the lodging.

Since I was in, I meant to greet the other members too, but no one was there.

"Which one is Eun-ji's room?"

The three hunters of Saebit Guild were using the same lodging. So there were three rooms. I didn't know which was Kim Eun-ji's.

When I opened the front door and went in, the living room was right ahead, two rooms on the left, one room on the right.

"Ngh."

With no choice, I opened the rooms one by one. At a glance, there might be a feeling like Kim Eun-ji's room. I knew it wasn't polite, but I couldn't keep holding a twenty-year-old girl either.

Better the lesser evil than the worst.

-Creak.

The first room had nothing. A white blanket spread on the floor and one small bundle. That was all. What is this.

"If it's the same lodging, it should be a woman."

It was far from the girl's room in my head. This didn't seem to be Kim Eun-ji's room.

-Creak.

Moving my feet and opening the door across from it, this time flashy decorations greeted me.

A room, plain to anyone, of an outgoing girl who likes flashy things.

From fashion magazines to a soft perfume smell brushing the tip of the nose. And even a bed done up in pink.

'Doesn't suit her.'

We had only met for a day, but it didn't suit Kim Eun-ji. Then only one room was left.

Crossing the living room and opening the door, a sight beyond my common sense spread out.

"What. This."

A photo of me as a teenager, from when I had just awakened as a hunter, was printed huge and decorating the wall.

Not only that. On the other walls, photos of me at various ages, taken from various angles, were stuck in enormous numbers.

"..."

How was I supposed to react to this. My head went pure white for a moment. Then there was something that caught my eye. A long pillow on the bed.

A photo of me was printed huge and stuck to it.

"Uh..."

The face and the groin of my photo were worn, but I refused to think further than that. I quickly closed the door and laid Kim Eun-ji on the sofa.

Right. Laying her on the sofa was enough, so why did I open the doors. A choice so stupid I had learned something I didn't want to know.

Is this what they call the curse of knowledge.

How am I supposed to treat Saebit Guild's hunters from here. And who is the owner of that room.

Various thoughts were tangling my head, when the face of Kim Eun-ji, sleeping soundly, entered my vision.

'She is pretty.'

Not just pretty. In the early days of supporting Kim Seol-yeon, I had gone along on broadcast shoots too. Back then I saw a great many actresses.

And Kim Eun-ji was beautiful enough to make the actresses, Kim Seol-yeon included, look ordinary. Enough to believe a goddess of beauty had cherished her and carved her.

"Nn..."

Kim Eun-ji twisted her face and let out a moan full of pain.

The shock of having reached a realm beyond her limit was, at first, large enough to be hard to bear. With time she would grow used to it little by little.

I quietly took Kim Eun-ji's wrist. I had awakened as a supporter type, and had even poured the experience into Kim Seol-yeon, so my mana was a pittance.

I had lived ten years in that state, so mana control was the one thing I was confident in.

-Slide.

Only a very little mana, but I moved it carefully and sent it through Kim Eun-ji's wrist into her whole body.

Loosening the stiffened meridians, and calming the mana core that had been startled from suddenly surpassing its limit.

"Haa."

Confirming that Kim Eun-ji's face, which had been twisted hard, had lightened, I rose from the spot.

I had agreed to work as an exclusive supporter, but I couldn't stay here forever.

"I'm tired."

Today I had an entrance interview, passed for good, and even handled a demon from a gate rampage. A dense day, and I went home first.

Then, arriving at the familiar one-room of an old villa, I showered, lay on the bed, and turned on my smartphone.

"Shall I see the reaction?"

The hunter community officially managed by the Hunter Association. Even inside it, there was a place only veteran hunters could enter.

Veteran Hunter Gallery. The so-called Vethun-gal. A funny name, but what was inside was not funny.

Because it was a place of collective intelligence where more veteran hunters than you'd think brought in quality information and major news from each country.

So it was also a place many new hunters wanted to enter. The screening was so tight it wasn't easy.

"Let's see."

The first demon subjugation in the world, so the reaction to it would be enormous. Not even a day had passed, so it might not be widely known yet.

[Title: Kim Seol-yeon got trash-tiered. Couldn't use White Night Ice Palace even once today. How's that any different from a C-rank hunter?

Body: Seriously pissed. Thought it was an easy request and ran over excited, and almost died.

Anon (114.23.4): From the body this looks like a Deungcheon Guild hunter, is it okay to curse Kim Seol-yeon?

└ Anon (222.31.5): The guild master curses her like crazy behind her back, why couldn't I? And Kim Seol-yeon who can't use White Night Ice Palace, I'd cut her in one second;;

└ Anon (114.23.4): It might be only today. What are you going to do if her condition recovers later.

└ Anon (222.31.5): If you worry about every little thing like that, how do you do hunter work? I almost died today because of that bitch.

└ Anon (114.23.4): You should respect me. I have worked in the hunter industry for ten years without controversy, and against a demon that an A-rank or below hunter is certain to die to, I minimized casualties..(more)]

"Already?"

A post that Kim Seol-yeon can't use White Night Ice Palace was already up on the community. If it was up on the community, it was a fact everyone at Deungcheon Guild knew.

"Doesn't matter."

Even if Deungcheon Guild caught on to everything late, I had no thought of going back. They might try some trick.

'Kim Eun-ji looks stronger than the whole of Deungcheon Guild put together.'

Large guilds beyond Korea, across the whole world, would be sending love calls. Deungcheon Guild wasn't even scary.

More than that, Kim Eun-ji's feat didn't seem to have spread on the community yet.

Around the time I was thinking that, a post was registered on the community.

[Title: World's first demon kill video.

A demon entered the gal from a gate rampage and I was running, then I saw Lee Si-u running over and came back, you know? If Lee Si-u's there, Kim Seol-yeon's there. Film White Night Ice Palace and it's a recommended post for sure, yeah

But he was with a girl I'd never seen? But huh? Look at this.

(Roughly a video of Kim Eun-ji activating Violet Heavenly Eye and cutting the demon and the rampaging gate in one strike. avi)]

"Oh."

A video a hunter who had been running at the time had filmed from a distance. Technology these days is good, so Kim Eun-ji's face was filmed clearly.

"Requests will come in plenty like this."

With a much lighter heart, I turned off the smartphone and fell into a deep sleep. Not knowing the world might be overturning while I slept.