Chapter 46: The Gap

It was the middle of lunchtime.

—Knock, knock.

Just then, someone knocked very carefully on the counseling office door.

I got up from my seat and went to the door.

“…Huh?”

But there was no one there.

I tilted my head in confusion, then lowered my gaze.

On the floor below the doorknob sat a small, neatly wrapped sandwich box.

And on top of the box…

[₍ᐢ ›_‹ ᐢ₎]

…was another cute, rabbit-shaped sticker.

“Well, now…”

I burst out laughing.

This was so thoughtful.

It seemed Luna had brought me a sandwich. She really didn’t have to.

I’ll have to bake her some more delicious bread or cookies next time.

Smiling, I picked up the sandwich box and went back inside.

Then, I quickly devoured Luna’s sandwich.

My short lunch break ended just like that.

The counseling office was soon bustling once again with the many people who had come to see me.

As I drifted through the afternoon sessions in a daze, the faint glow of sunset outside the window faded, and darkness fell.

It was time to go home.

I squeezed the very last drop from the nearly empty coffee pot and downed it, then pressed the button on the intercom.

“Next client?”

—Knock, knock.

Instead of an answer, there was a knock on the door.

“Yes. You can come in.”

I pulled a fresh sheet of paper from a well-worn stack of documents and prepared to greet my last client of the day.

The door opened, and someone came in.

I looked up.

“…Well, look who it is.”

I smiled.

A familiar face was standing there.

A neat, brown bob. Round, kind eyes.

And behind her back, faintly glowing, butterfly-shaped mana wings.

The A-class supporter from the Haetae Guild, where I used to work.

It was Baek Si-eun.

“Si-eun? What brings you here?”

Baek Si-eun gave me a mysterious smile and naturally pulled up the chair across from me to sit down.

“I’m a client today.”

“Huh?”

A client?

She was famous in the guild for being cheerful and kind. She seemed like the type of person who was far removed from having any worries…

But then again, you never know what’s going on inside someone’s head.

“I’ve… had something on my mind lately. Talking to a stranger felt like a burden… so I thought it might be better to see someone I know.”

It seemed she really had come because something was troubling her.

I nodded.

However, while she might seek out someone she knows, my position was the opposite. If a counselor already knows their client, there’s a high risk of a dual relationship, where personal feelings can interfere with an objective diagnosis. Therefore, the principle is to avoid it if possible and refer them to another counselor.

However, she was just a former coworker. Our relationship wasn’t that close, and we had no current connection. As long as I was clearly aware of the situation, it should be fine.

“I see. I’m glad you came.”

I took a clean, new diagnostic record sheet from the drawer. In the last, empty slot for today’s sessions, I wrote her name with a pen.

[Baek Si-eun]

I put down the pen and faced her.

“What’s on your mind?”

In response to my calm question, Baek Si-eun gave an awkward smile. She seemed to be choosing her words for a moment before carefully speaking.

“My worry these days is…” she began. “I have someone I like. No, to be precise, I’ve liked him for a very long time…”

“I see.”

This was more unexpected than I thought. For now, I just listened to her quietly.

“Things… aren’t going well. There’s no progress, and I feel like we’re just going to grow further apart.”

I slowly nodded.

Unrequited love, uncertainty in a relationship. A light counseling session like this wouldn’t be difficult. I figured we could gradually determine if the feelings were mutual or one-sided.

“I see. In that case, first, let’s talk about this unrequi—”

But before I could finish, she added with a perfectly cheerful smile.

“So, I’ve also thought about just locking him up in my house.”

I froze.

For a moment, I thought I’d misheard her.

Lock him up… in her house…?

I looked at Baek Si-eun’s face again. She was still smiling cheerfully. I couldn’t even tell if she had really just said those words.

“Wait a minute…”

“Hm?”

I mentally threw my counselor’s manual out the window. Leaning forward with a serious expression, I asked her point-blank.

“Si-eun, are you serious?”

Baek Si-eun nodded with a slightly bitter expression.

“Yeah… I’m serious.”

She seemed to choose her words for a moment. Then, she carefully began to reveal her true worries.

“I didn’t know either. That I was this kind of person.”

She gave a self-deprecating smile.

“Before I came to this world, I’d never liked anyone before. But after finding someone I like here, I realized.”

Baek Si-eun briefly avoided my gaze.

“That the customs of the world I used to live in were deeply ingrained in my instincts.”

Customs?

What was Baek Si-eun’s home world again…?

“Just a moment.”

“Okay.”

I quickly turned on the computer next to me and accessed the Hunter Association’s Outsider database. I typed her name into the search bar.

Baek Si-eun… home world…

Ah, here it is.

*

[Regulated World: Hestia]

I read the name in my mind, then read the world overview attached below it.

[Lifestyle not significantly different from modern Earth.]

[Peculiarities: Extreme gender imbalance. A society with a severe female majority, with a male-to-female ratio of approximately 1:57.]

[Due to a naturally low male birth rate, males are considered a top priority for protection for the sake of species preservation.]

[Consequently, competition among women to claim an adult male is extremely fierce. In this process, physical conflict and forms of forced courtship, akin to abduction marriage, are institutionally permitted for certain high-ranking women.]

*

Oh, dear.

Now I remember.

Hestia.

Only then did the words she’d just uttered make some sense. After all, in the world she came from, it might have been a common practice.

But not here.

I shifted my gaze from the monitor back to her. And as both her counselor and her former colleague, I spoke seriously.

“Si-eun, I understand. I think I get why you had those thoughts.”

At my words, a faint glimmer of relief crossed her face.

I cut off that last shred of hope.

“But this is Earth, not Hestia. Here, that’s a crime.”

She was silent for a long time. Finally, she gave a small nod. It was the bitter nod of someone who had resigned themselves to the truth.

“Yeah… I understand.”

Baek Si-eun smiled faintly.

“Actually, that’s why I came. In my head, I know he would hate it, but I keep wavering…”

Then she looked me straight in the eye.

“But hearing you say it so bluntly… it actually makes me feel a bit more at ease.”

I felt a little relieved at her confession. This was the Baek Si-eun I knew.

And as her counselor and former colleague, I comforted her.

“It’s okay. Of course you’re confused. You’ve lived your whole life in a different world.”

“The important thing is that you know it’s wrong, and you came here to stop yourself. That in itself is an amazing thing.”

A smile bloomed on her face at my words of comfort. As if nothing had happened, she returned to her old, cheerful self and stood up from her chair.

“Thanks, Seon-woo. I feel a bit better now. I’ve decided what to do.”

“As thanks, I’ll buy you dinner. Let’s go grab a bite.”

I hesitated for a moment at her offer. But maybe what she needed right now wasn’t a rigid counseling session, but a comfortable meal.

I smiled and nodded.

“Alright.”

*

Late at night. The very heart of the Haetae Guild headquarters.

The air in the underground training room was scorching hot.

“Hah…”

Jin Se-ah gasped for breath, wiping the sweat beading on her chin with the sleeve of her drenched training uniform.

She stepped out of the training room. On the floor, guild members were collapsed in various states.

An important raid was just around the corner. A single mistake there would lead to death. So everyone was engrossed in their training.

“How were my stats?” Jin Se-ah asked the training coach standing beside her as she chugged an ion drink that tasted like plain water.

“Record broken.”

He just gave a thumbs-up, his eyes delighted.

Jin Se-ah slowly nodded. Then, she turned her head to check on her collapsed comrades.

“……?”

Jin Se-ah’s eyes narrowed slightly.

Something was missing. She was sure everyone was here.

A low voice escaped her lips.

“Baek Si-eun…?”

One person was gone. The team’s only supporter.

“Ah, Hunter Si-eun is a supporter, and she had an appointment today, so she left early,” the coach replied nonchalantly.

Jin Se-ah whipped her head around at his answer.

“What kind of appointment?”

“That… I’m not sure…”

An ominous premonition flashed through Jin Se-ah’s mind.

Baek Si-eun was the person Jin Se-ah had been watching most closely. Before, she only had to focus on things within the guild, but after Seon-woo left Haetae, it became much more difficult. As a result, unavoidable gaps in her surveillance would sometimes appear…

And in that brief gap, while she was inside training, Baek Si-eun had disappeared.

“……”

Jin Se-ah trusted her instincts. And she was sure she was right this time, too. It hadn’t been the first time.

“Is training over for today?”

“Huh? Ah, yes, that’s right.”

Jin Se-ah tossed her sweat-soaked towel carelessly into the laundry bin. And without a moment’s hesitation, she headed out.

*

The private room at the barbecue restaurant was a cozy, quiet space, insulated from the noise outside.

—Sizzle, sizzle.

On the grill, red beef sizzled deliciously as it cooked.

“Ahaha! Really? Team Leader Wi Jae-wan said that?” Baek Si-eun burst out laughing at the old story I told her.

“Yeah, he told me to quit being a hunter and just become a counselor. Said he’d even bring me clients.”

It was an old story.

“I see… so that’s why you quit… Team Leader Wi Jae-wan…”

It seemed the other hunters at Haetae didn’t know the exact details. She had asked me why I had quit.

I smiled, placing a perfectly cooked piece of meat on her plate.

She said, “Thanks,” and ate it naturally.

It was nothing to be thanked for. Since she was treating me, the least I could do was handle the grilling.

We spent a long time after that chatting about trivial things—things that happened at the guild after I left, updates on our old colleagues.

“Still, this job is comfortable since I just have to do it by myself.”

“I bet… I’ve been having some trouble with my teammates lately, too.”

“Teammates?”

As far as I knew, Baek Si-eun didn’t have a bad relationship with anyone on the team. In fact, she was the type who got along well with everyone.

“What do you have to worry about?” I asked out of genuine curiosity.

“Well…”

At my question, the cheerful smile on Baek Si-eun’s face faded slightly. As if hesitating whether to say it or not, she just poked at a mushroom on the grill with her chopsticks.

I waited silently for her to speak.

Finally, she opened her mouth and spoke in a small voice.

“You know, Seon-woo.”

“This might just be my own idea, but…”

She looked me straight in the eye.

“I think… Se-ah doesn’t really like me.”

It was about Jin Se-ah.

---

Translated By: Meher (RaidenTL)

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