Ch.75Have We Met Somewhere Before?

# Hunter’s Blood

The department stores in the Hunter’s Blood universe were places that dealt not only in luxury clothing and accessories, but also “luxury equipment.”

Thanks to this, they were an essential stop for B-rank hunters and above who were tired of mass-produced equipment. In the game, I had struggled so much just to shop there once…

“I’ll take this, this, and this too.”

“Yes, oh, certainly!”

…I had worked so hard back then.

‘She’s flexing… but this is way too much flexing…!’

Shinsegae Department Store in Gangnam.

The entire fifth floor was filled with hunter-related equipment.

Even a simple smoke grenade cost at least a million won—a place where I wouldn’t dare think about buying anything.

Yet there was Sophia, shopping casually like an adult visiting a stationery store, picking up items left and right.

I could only stand there with my mouth hanging open.

“Ma’am, this is an invisibility cloak directly imported from England. It has the ability to blend your body with the surrounding environment the moment you put it on.”

“Oh my! I absolutely must have this!”

“…Hey, Sophia. Don’t you think you’re buying too much?”

“Sis… come shopping for clothes with me too…”

How could she keep this up for two whole hours?

Concerned about Sophia’s bank balance—though she showed no signs of fatigue—I tried to get her out of there quickly, but:

“No way! We’re staying here for at least five more hours. Both of you better be prepared to wait!”

“Fi-five…!”

“Five more hours?!”

That meant we’d be here from morning until evening.

Wait, does she even have that kind of money?

‘Just how rich are you, Sophia…’

“Shinwoo. You just need to stand by my side like a trophy husband, okay? And Lia, your sister already picked out clothes for you. Just go get them. Got it?”

“Ugh…”

“She’s thought of everything…!”

Though Sophia said it was fine, the role of trophy husband didn’t suit me at all.

I could tell she was buying several items for me, and the total seemed to exceed hundreds of millions of won, making me break out in a cold sweat.

The feeling of being crushed by burden and guilt.

I could see that Lia, who had wanted to shop for herself, was becoming just as depressed as I was.

“Oppa… let’s go get some ice cream…”

“Should we…?”

“Oh, then take my card. Use this to buy something on the first floor.”

“No, I can pay for ice cream myself…”

“Just take it!”

It’s really fine.

It’s seriously fine.

But Sophia was now forcefully committing “cash assault” on me.

Unable to resist a hunter’s strength, I somehow ended up holding a black card in my hand.

“We’ll be back…”

“We’ll be back…”

“Okay, you two have fun~”

And so Lia and I walked hand in hand, trudging toward the elevator.

***

Lia, who had been depressed about not being able to buy her own clothes…

“Lick, lick!”

I guess even monsters are still children at heart.

When I handed her ice cream to cheer her up, she happily licked away, but…

“Hmm… approved.”

“?!”

Sometimes she would turn serious, expressionless, and evaluate the taste.

‘At least Lia is enjoying herself.’

Sitting across from each other on the first floor of the department store, I wondered if we should just wait here until Sophia finished her shopping.

That’s how completely Sophia had transformed into a beauty lost in her own world of flexing.

Even if I wanted to pay her back for my items later, the cost had already exceeded my bank balance.

As a low-ranking Hunter Meister with nothing I could do but wait…

“This is complete fraud!”

…or so I thought.

“What’s that?”

Being a department store that also served as an evacuation site during monster attacks, loud noises quickly echoed throughout the space.

Thanks to that, I immediately spotted the commotion in front of a cosmetics store in the first-floor lobby.

“You sold it to the customer just before me for 39,000 won! Why are you charging me 390,000 won? Are you trying to scam me because I’m a foreigner?!”

“No, no… that person was…”

“…Huh?”

A woman arguing with the store owner about prices across the counter.

Black beret.

Blue ribbon decoration.

Black jacket with gray hair flowing as brightly as Ms. Cheran’s.

The moment I saw those burning red eyes, I was so surprised to see her here that I accidentally…

“Ri-Riverine?!”

“Hm…?”

“Ah!”

I blurted out her name.

As our eyes met, I felt this could turn bad, so I grabbed Lia, who was eating ice cream, and started running away.

“O-Oppa?! What’s wrong?”

“Later! I’ll explain later!”

“What do you mean later?”

“?!”

“…!”

But she wasn’t a Villain’s Troupe member who couldn’t catch up to a normal person running.

“Oppa! Get behind me, this person is dangerous…?!”

“A monster? Hmm. I’ve heard of humanoid monsters, but I’ve never seen one that can talk. You two are quite an unusual combination.”

Somehow we made it down to the deserted underground parking lot, but at that moment, both my body and Lia’s—who had stepped forward to protect me—froze stiff.

Or more precisely, we were fixed in place by threads.

“M-my body…!”

“Can’t move…”

As expected, without kaijufication, I couldn’t see the magical threads.

Riverine’s skill was truly first-class.

I really wished she would let us go.

“R-Riverine! Let’s clear up this misunderstanding!”

“Misunderstanding? Before that, you need to tell me how you know my identity.”

Was she trying to intimidate me?

Riverine wrapped a thick magical thread around my neck, visible even to ordinary people.

It was a warning that she could snap my neck at any moment if I made the slightest wrong move.

“O-Oppa! Hey! Stop that right now!”

It was also a threat that resistance was meaningless.

“If this monster girl makes any rash moves, I’ll break your neck immediately.”

“What?!”

“So calm her down.”

“H-hey! I’m calm! So, so don’t do that…”

“……”

A surprisingly communicative baby monster.

Riverine looked at Lia with a dubious expression.

At that moment.

“Riverine! Is this how you treat your ‘comrades’?!”

“Com-rades? You?”

I felt a bit guilty using my knowledge of the original work, but I decided to “target” Riverine.

“Yes. Isn’t it too much to treat a fellow Villain’s Troupe member like this just because we haven’t seen each other in a while?”

“……”

Members of the Villain’s Troupe only knew each other by name.

They rarely gathered, so except for leader Katarina, members often didn’t know each other’s faces.

This was actually a plot hook for future DLC (expansion pack), and I decided to exploit this developer trick.

“W-wait! If you’re really our comrade, first let me contact the leader…”

“Senior! Please let us go first. I’ll contact her instead.”

“S-senior?!”

Besides, I was once a man who had maxed out Riverine’s affection meter.

As a veteran player, I had unlocked everything from dating stories to 18+ CGs with her.

“Senior.”

“…! Ahem!”

Riverine was always treated as a junior along with Dorothy in the Villain’s Troupe.

Addressing her as “senior” was a move to score affection points.

“Fine. Then you contact her yourself, ‘junior’.”

She was technically my senior, after all.

“Oppa? Do you know this person?”

“Ah, yes… she’s kind of like my boss at work.”

“…Another woman?”

Lia was staring at me suspiciously.

And as the threads loosened, I took out my phone and dialed Katarina’s number while Riverine watched nervously from across from me.

***

“So this is a department store…”

I had only heard about them but never actually visited one.

That’s because in the world I came from, the concept of department stores had already disappeared.

Human marketplaces or breeding farms maybe, but never buildings on the surface filled only with people.

Despite having studied beforehand, the blonde boy was so nervous he could barely walk properly.

‘Everyone’s smiling… it’s truly a wonderful sight.’

The Napoleonic-era gold coins I had given to Katarina had been exchanged for Korean currency.

This should be enough to replenish my equipment.

‘The problems with China start after this, right?’

In about a month, the North-South relations of this country, which had maintained a ceasefire for 70 years, would return to the brink of war.

And when that happens, “that guy” would cross the ceasefire line and set foot on this land.

The blonde boy recalled the events he had only studied in books and headed to Shinsegae Department Store—said to have the highest quality hunter items in Korea aside from Hongdae—to prepare in advance.

He went up to the fifth floor and started looking around for necessary equipment.

But then.

“I-incredible! This is an anti-kaiju grenade! How can something so rare cost only 100,000 won?! And this magic wand with a dragon crystal embedded in it costs only 1.2 billion…”

Since it was truly his first time in a department store,

He had already forgotten his original purpose and was completely immersed in shopping, like someone experiencing culture shock.

However, at that moment.

Bump!

“Ah…”

“Oh my. I’m sorry.”

After frantically exploring the department store without rest, he accidentally bumped shoulders with someone.

The blonde boy hurriedly turned around to apologize politely, but…

“…!”

The same blonde hair as his own.

And when his eyes met those ocean-blue eyes he had only seen in photographs…

“…! …!!”

The blonde boy could only freeze.

He knew he would experience something like this someday, but it was still too sudden.

“Oh, oh my…”

However,

Since Sophia had no idea about the boy’s circumstances…

“…? Excuse me…”

“!! Yes!”

“Have we met somewhere before?”

Though they must be meeting for the first time,

Looking at the human before her who felt not at all unfamiliar and not at all unpleasant, Sophia could only tilt her head in confusion.