Ch.9The Contracting Saint

“So, did you enjoy the meal?”

“Y-yes, it was delicious…”

“No need to be so timid. The person who made it probably did so to see the happy face of the person eating it, right?”

“Well, I suppose so.”

After the chaotic dinner, Aila, the woman, and the man were sitting around a low table.

“So after feeding you like this, you’re not coldly planning to say ‘goodbye’ and leave, are you?”

“…Was that your intention from the beginning?”

“Let’s help each other out. I provide food, you provide information. Sounds good, right?”

The woman said as she lit a cigarette.

“Mmm… Ahh! Nothing beats a post-meal smoke. Want one?”

“No thanks, I don’t have a taste for tobacco.”

“Really? What joy is there in life then… Poor thing.”

The woman sucked on her cigarette as if it were sweet, her cheeks hollowing with each drag.

The cigarette had already burned black halfway down.

“So, I have a few questions… you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”

“Since I enjoyed your meal, I’ll answer as much as I can within my limits.”

“We understand each other! Ah, but before that…”

The woman clapped her hands and began rummaging through her coat pocket.

“Here, take this.”

“What’s this?”

What the woman held out was a piece of paper.

White and stiff.

On one side was a small map, and on the other—

“Rainbow… En-tertainment? CEO… Kang Seon-ah.”

“My name, and my company.”

The woman, Kang Seon-ah, said with her arms spread wide.

Aila looked around.

The walls were cracked and the floor was covered in mold.

The flickering ceiling light added to the eerie atmosphere.

“What kind of business operates in a place like this?”

“Don’t you have something to say first? When someone reveals their name, it’s polite to give yours in return.”

It felt like she was being led somewhere.

Was this person skilled at conversation?

A CEO was the highest person in a company, right?

She remembered hearing about this from the Hero.

Since the highest person in a company was similar to a guild master, they would naturally be accustomed to conversation.

Aila finished her thought.

“Please call me Aila.”

“Aila? Are you a foreigner?”

“Yes.”

“No surname?”

“No.”

Becoming a saint meant shedding all worldly attachments and becoming the Lord’s representative.

In other words, it meant erasing all traces of relationships from before becoming a saint.

Well, she didn’t have a surname to begin with since she was an orphan.

Aila gave a bitter smile.

“Aila, foreigner, no surname…”

Kang Seon-ah muttered quietly.

“So, what kind of business does this company do?”

“On paper, it’s a hunter’s office.”

“…A hunter’s office?”

“Yes, though we only have two hunters affiliated with us.”

Ten years after dungeons appeared, they had become part of everyday life.

During this process, numerous professions appeared and disappeared, and among the newly created professions, hunters were naturally included.

Hunters, due to the nature of their work, operated as individual business entities.

This led to various problems.

Issues with contracts, administrative procedures, and so on.

To solve these problems, someone needed to bridge the gap between hunters and those who needed them.

“That’s us, Rainbow Entertainment!”

“……”

After finishing her passionate speech, Kang Seon-ah jumped up, tilted her head toward the sky, and stretched out both arms.

Aila was speechless.

“Simply put, we’re like an employment agency for hunters! But judging by your question, I’m guessing you don’t have this system in your country?”

“No, we don’t.”

She answered, but Aila understood less than half of what Kang Seon-ah had said.

She had just responded with the assumption that it was something like a guild.

“Then on paper—”

“Hold on, we should take turns asking questions.”

Kang Seon-ah extended her hand toward Aila and said.

“For my next question, hmm… that sword, what is it? Can I see it?”

Aila lowered her gaze.

The sword at her waist.

The Hero’s holy sword.

Aila’s eyes narrowed.

Kang Seon-ah waved her hands and said.

“No, I don’t necessarily need to touch it. I just want to see the sword.”

“……”

If it was just looking, well…

Aila grabbed the holy sword with one hand and lifted it up.

“Is this enough?”

“Hmm… could you possibly unsheathe it?”

Aila’s expression momentarily hardened.

The holy sword can be used by anyone, and anyone can draw out its power.

With certain restrictions, that is.

The reason a hero uses the holy sword is because they are beings who transcend those restrictions.

The condition for drawing the holy sword is firm resolve at the moment of drawing it.

Not simply the will to “draw the sword!” but the conviction that “for such and such reasons, I must draw this sword!”

Aila held the scabbard, gripped the handle, and tried to separate them.

“…I’m sorry. It won’t come out.”

“Is that so? Perhaps it’s some kind of artifact that requires specific conditions to use… That’s all for my question. Your turn.”

“…Earlier, you said ‘on paper.’ So what does this company actually do?”

“Hmm… would you prefer an answer full of dreams and hope, or one steeped in reality?”

“I don’t mind either way.”

“We’re detectives.”

Detectives?

Aila tilted her head.

She had heard about detectives from the Hero.

People cursed to have death follow them wherever they go.

In Aila’s mind, everything that had happened so far started to connect.

Why would they establish a base in such a filthy place?

The reason was that there were fewer people in places like this.

Aila’s reaction was swift.

“May all that is unclean, unjust, and wicked vanish. Return to where you belong under the name of the Lord. [Purification].”

Kang Seon-ah’s body was instantly enveloped in a pale green light.

“What is—huh?”

As the light faded, Kang Seon-ah was about to say something to Aila but then rolled up her sleeve and looked at her right wrist.

“What is this…”

“The curse has been lifted now. You can safely interact with other people—”

“You crazy woman! What have you done?!”

Kang Seon-ah shouted so loudly that the building shook.

The man who had been washing dishes in the kitchen rushed out with rubber gloves still on and exclaimed.

“W-what happened—”

“My, my curse that I collected for a year… This must be a dream… a nightmare…”

“Eh? Ehhh? The curse is gone? Why?!”

“I don’t know, damn it!!”

The man and woman shouted noisily at each other.

Left alone, Aila couldn’t follow what was happening.

***

“I’m truly sorry.”

“Sigh… Well, it’s fine. You didn’t have bad intentions.”

“I’m really sorry…”

“It’s okay~ I only spent a year acting terribly to collect that curse, and all that effort and time was destroyed in an instant by one spell, but it’s fine~.”

Aila had her head down on the desk.

She resented the Hero.

After the brief purification commotion, she learned that the word “detective” that Kang Seon-ah used was very different from what the Hero had told her.

‘I can’t believe it was actually a profession…’

Using purification based on her assumptions was entirely her fault, but she couldn’t help feeling wronged.

‘Why was she collecting curses in the first place?’

Aila swallowed her question.

She was the perpetrator in this situation.

It wasn’t the right time to ask such questions.

“It’s really okay. Could you lift your head?”

“…Yes.”

Aila raised her head.

Kang Seon-ah held back a smile.

She looked like a drenched puppy all huddled up.

‘She’s cute.’

Well, it was a shame to lose the curse collected over a year, but it wasn’t particularly necessary anyway.

“S-so, this company takes requests from other people, right?”

Aila asked hesitantly.

“That’s right.”

Simply put, they were a private investigation agency.

‘Good thing I don’t need to give the reality-steeped answer.’

“Um… if that’s the case, could you possibly take my request too?”

“What is it?”

Kang Seon-ah was about to pull out a cigarette from her pack but saw that only one remained and put it back in her pocket.

Aila said.

“I want to find someone.”

“Oh! That’s exactly what we detectives do. Name? Date of birth? Gender? Appearance?”

“Ah, well, the name is—”

“Money?”

“…Is money necessary?”

“Of course, do you think we dig up the ground for business?”

The atmosphere suddenly turned cold.

“Miss, this is our job. You pay us, and we fulfill your request. That’s the deal.”

“Ah, um… I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”

“It’s okay~ You might not have known. So, do you have money?”

Aila’s shoulders shrank even more.

“Um, no…”

“If you don’t have money yourself, you can ask someone you know.”

“……”

The only people she had met in this world were those she encountered on Jeju Island and on the ship.

Everyone else she knew had returned to the Lord’s embrace.

“Then how about this.”

Kang Seon-ah said to Aila, who remained silent.

“Would you like to make a contract with me?”