17 – Meeting

[The Constellation, ‘Moon-Cleaving Flash’ smacks the back of his long-time friend’s head.]

[The Constellation, ‘Blood-Soaked Oni’ laughs while grabbing the back of his head.]

Uh… Constellations?

What is going on?

The sudden greeting from the Constellation called Blood-Soaked Oni.

And the violent response from the Constellation left me confused.

Other Constellations besides the one I contracted with can send messages.

Of course, if they have malicious intent, they’ll be blocked by my Constellation, but seeing as that’s not the case with this Constellation, I don’t think they’re a bad one.

They even called him a friend in the first place.

Though the Constellation name ‘Blood-Soaked Oni’ is a bit unsettling…

‘More importantly, whose Constellation is it?’

There’s no way they’d suddenly send me a greeting out of the blue.

They must have a reason for sending me a message.

So, what could that reason be?

As I pondered this, lost in thought for a moment.

“You seem quite confused.”

“…..!?”

The Sword Demon sitting next to me spoke to her.

No way…

“He’s my Constellation, I haven’t officially revealed it, so you probably don’t know, but he’s my Constellation.”

[The Constellation, ‘Blood-Soaked Oni’ nods in agreement.]

The Sword Demon’s Constellation…

I understand a bit better now.

If I had more time, I would have liked to talk a bit, but I had to put that thought aside because of the person who opened the door and entered a little later.

“Thank you all for arriving early. I truly appreciate it.”

Lake Fulton, the head of the British Association.

A blue-haired man who looked quite old, though not as much as the Sword Demon.

He was the head of the British Association, whom I had seen a few times online.

He entered the conference room, bowed to the Hunters present to express his gratitude, and then headed to the seat in the center and sat down.

Then, he began his explanation.

“As you all know, Brighton in England is in chaos due to the opening of an SS-class gate.”

Along with his words, he used an artifact to display a picture on the screen next to him.

To be precise, it was a combination of several pictures into one.

The picture contained much more detailed information than the single picture Jin Ha-jeong had shown me before.

Smashed large buildings and massive structures.

Crushed cars and…

‘Human corpses.’

It was a scene that naturally made me frown.

Who would enjoy seeing the corpses of people, especially ordinary families who were not enemies?

Anyway, turning my gaze away from the picture, I looked at Lake Fulton.

“As you can see in these pictures, Brighton is in utter chaos. As I said earlier, it’s because an SS-class gate has opened.”

Sitting in his chair, he spoke with a gloomy expression.

“That’s why we hired you all.”

“We know that. Why state the obvious?”

The one who suddenly lashed out was Duke Trelin.

Well… considering this guy’s personality as I know it from the internet, I guess it’s to be expected.

He held the back of his head with both hands and spoke as if he was extremely annoyed.

“Black Magic Swordsman, this is an official setting. Please refrain from acting inappropriately.”

Then, Hong-ryeon opened his mouth.

As expected, he was a knight upholding chivalry, just like in novels and many other works.

Kind of cool.

Just as Duke was about to retort to Hong-ryeon’s words, Fulton, seizing the opportunity as if he wasn’t just the head of the Association, quickly continued.

“The operation will begin tomorrow around 5 PM. We plan to divide the roles into three teams of three, so please listen carefully.”

First, Fallen Grace, Yami Kaede, and Baek Ha-yeon will be the attack team, directly entering the gate and breaking through.

Then, Ellen Maiasa, Jaina Veronica, and Raven Reynolds will be in charge of eliminating the Monsters around the gate.

Finally, Shine Reinfield, Delia Roserel, and Duke Trelin will patrol Brighton to check if there are any remaining citizens and rescue them.

It was an understandable arrangement.

‘Fallen Grace is a typical tank.’

Since the second team’s objective is to eliminate Monsters rather than defend against them, a charge would be more suitable for them.

As for the rest, it seems like they just want me and Kaede to focus on dealing damage.

‘The second team…’

Ellen Maiasa is more effective at debuffs and restraints than attacking, so she went to the second team.

Jaina Veronica is a dealer, but she’s closer to a versatile dealer who adapts to situations rather than charging in.

Raven Reynolds… went to the second team, but his true affiliation is probably not there.

He’ll probably be sweeping through a wide area on his own.

‘Lastly.’

Shine Reinfield can fly and is relatively weak in attack here, so he’s strong in reconnaissance.

Delia Roserel has the nickname Flash, so she’s as fast as light, and Duke Trelin will be like a safety net in case anything happens.

After that, Lake Fulton explained which areas he would be responsible for, and before long.

“Then, we will conclude the strategy meeting here. Everyone, please return to your accommodations and get some rest.”

With that, people rose from their seats and left the conference room.

She also got up and was leaving the conference room.

“Wait.”

Her wrist was grabbed, and when she turned around, she saw Kaede.

Surprised by the sudden situation, Ha-yeon asked her.

“What’s wrong?”

“Um… can you spar with me once?”

Sparring?

At 11 PM right now?

When we have an operation tomorrow?

“I don’t mind, but… only if it won’t be too much for tomorrow.”

“I won’t go that far.”

“Okay, then let’s go to the training grounds.”

I saw the training grounds among the places I saw in the elevator earlier today.

‘It was on the 6th floor.’

The other Hunters returned to their respective accommodations, but the two of them didn’t go straight down to the 4th floor and stopped on the 6th floor to visit the training grounds.

“There aren’t many people.”

There would probably be a lot of people during the day, but maybe because it’s quite late, there weren’t many people.

Thinking that, the two of them naturally entered the empty training grounds.

[S@!!!**#&$&%^!#@(#&!(!)S__!&^@ !@&$^ !*@&#]

[O/X]

Along with that, a window popped up with an O/X mark of some kind.

Confused by this, she was momentarily flustered, but there was a solution.

“Language translation…?”

[Language has been translated to Korean.]

As expected, there’s no way an association in a country like England wouldn’t have this function!

The System probably understood what I said and translated it into Korean.

[S-class Hunter ‘Yami Kaede’ has requested a spar with S-class Hunter ‘Baek Ha-yeon’, would you like to accept the request?]

[O/X]

“Ah, so that’s what it was.”

Ha-yeon, who naturally pressed O, grabbed the wooden sword that was provided as standard in the training grounds a moment later.

Kaede in front of me is also holding a wooden short sword, dagger, and long sword, so this must be the right thing to do.

[The Constellation, ‘Moon-Cleaving Flash’ chuckles, saying it looks like their System window.]

The message from the Constellation popped up.

I thought so too, but I couldn’t just brush it off.

‘Ah…’

Blood-Soaked Oni.

I was going to meet him after the meeting, but I forgot.

There’s no need to meet him now, so should I ask him after the operation?

I was momentarily flustered by the sudden thought, but it wasn’t a big deal, so I brushed it off.

Whether the System was ready or not, the System window popped up again.

[The spar will begin.]

[3]

[2]

[1]

[The spar begins.]

[3:00]

[02:59]

The timer started running at the same time as the spar began.

Is there a time limit? 3 minutes, that’s so short.

The moment I had that thought.

“Kuh!”

I couldn’t help but widen my eyes at the attack coming in from right next to me.

Fast!

‘As expected of an S-class!’

Come to think of it, this was the first time I’d fought an S-class Hunter.

Jin Ha-jeong is the only S-class I’ve met so far, but still.

More than that, she’s so fast!

Still, quickly deflecting the sword to the side, she regained her stance and prepared for the next attack.

‘Hver’s Evil Eye.’

[Skill, ‘Hver’s Evil Eye(A)’ has been activated.]

Hver’s Evil Eye to increase my dynamic visual acuity.

And Kaede’s movements began to be visible.

‘This is…’

Like a ghost.

It was an upgraded version of Lee Seol-ah, the assassin-type Hunter I had met before.

Her stealth was on par with Lee Seol-ah, who was wearing the Life-Veiling Cloth.

But her movements were completely different.

Unlike the rather linear Lee Seol-ah, she was very erratic.

In a word… tricky.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The wooden swords continued to clash.

Along with that, I glanced at the timer next to me.

[0:39]

Time is

“Pung-a.”

Pung-a, one of the many sword techniques in Northern Demon Swordsmanship.

Each one is powerful, but this Pung-a technique in particular.

“Gaejin.”

Its destructive power was among the top.

After greatly lifting the long sword that was swung at her to the side and upward, the next sword technique naturally followed.

Pung-a was a sword technique that was connected to another technique about halfway through.

After greatly lifting with Pung-a, there was plenty of time to perform another movement in the remaining time.

“Seolpung.”

Among them, I swung the sword technique that best suited Pung-a.

The end of the sword that had been swung greatly changed direction and returned quickly. It was blocked by Kaede’s hastily swung long sword, but.

“Chang-yeon.”

Seolpung is so flexible that it can be said to be one with another sword technique.

That’s Chang-yeon.

The path of the blocked sword was diverted to the side very naturally, and just as I was about to attack her right after that.

Beep!

[00:00]

Time ran out.

The result… a draw.