Chapter 463: Early Departure (1)

Returning to work after three days. And a dungeon expedition with Min-ah.

After finishing the morning expedition to a certain extent, we sat across from each other in the company cafeteria, chatting about the afternoon’s schedule over lunch.

“Sung Taekyung. Are you going to run dungeons in the afternoon too?”

“Hmm. If you’re going, I’ll go with you.”

“Ah, but I have to leave work now….”

“Huh?”

This workaholic Han Min-ah is going to take leave early today instead of working a full shift?

She didn’t look particularly unwell, though?

“Are you sick? Or is it… that time of the month?”

“…The first thing you jump to when I say I’m leaving a bit early is asking if it’s that time?”

“No, well, if it were anyone else, I wouldn’t bat an eye, but Han Min-ah, you leaving early just seems so strange.”

Especially since you’ve been constantly saying you’re saving money because of moving expenses lately.

Han Min-ah, who was currently getting seconds at the company cafeteria because ‘the food here is free,’ was proof of that.

The fact that she, of all people, was leaving early made the situation feel awkward, so it could only be explained by something else coming up.

“So, do you have something else busy going on?”

“It’s nothing major, I just have some business to take care of at the Ariel Foundation this afternoon.”

“……Huh?”

…Han Min-ah, at the Foundation?

As far as I knew, the Foundation was a guild exclusively for chaebol heiresses.

The name didn’t quite fit with the woman in front of me in many ways, so my surprised reaction was only natural.

It wasn’t like I was trying to criticize Han Min-ah, but her living in a semi-basement villa and the Foundation just didn’t seem to match….

“Hey, you were just thinking that the Foundation and I don’t match, weren’t you?”

“…A little?”

“I’m not going there for a guild transfer or anything. I got permission from the company first. It’s considered an external guild assignment.”

“Ah, ah… An external guild assignment….”

Right, guilds do have systems like that, each in their own way.

A system where they lend out guild-affiliated hunters to other guilds. Though the names probably differ slightly between guilds.

As for me, I was working alternating shifts between the company and the union under dual registration, so there was no reason for me to use such a system.

I had no connection with the Foundation in the first place.

‘No connection… right?’

Well, I do have some rather messy connections with the ‘hunters’ affiliated with the Foundation, but I can’t say I have a connection with the Foundation itself.

In that sense, Han Min-ah’s statement about going on an external guild assignment to the Foundation was quite intriguing.

“It’s not like it’s my first time. I’d been there a few times even before I transferred to this company.”

“Oh, really?”

“…I feel a bit embarrassed saying this myself, but there really aren’t many scouts ranked A-class or higher, right? We barely have enough at the company and have to rotate them. And the Foundation isn’t a guild that accepts just anyone. So when they’re in a pinch, I get sent out on assignments like this occasionally.”

“Working with the women at the Foundation sounds like it would be tiring in many ways. Honestly, there are quite a few strange people there, aren’t there?”

“That’s true… but still, this pays well.”

Han Min-ah made a circle with her left thumb and index finger, showing it to me.

It was a gesture that felt like the responsibility of a breadwinner.

“Anyway, be careful. The women there, their walls are at least dangerous in some way, so don’t get drawn in by any weird women.”

“Hmm? So far, there hasn’t really been anyone who showed interest in me… Huh?”

“Why?”

“No… I mean, I go on assignments to the Foundation often, so I get it, but how do you know what the Foundation hunters’ walls are like?”

“……”

…Ah, crap, I talked too much.

Denying it here wouldn’t convince him anyway, so instead of strongly denying it, I gave a vague, non-committal answer.

“Just… I found out somehow.”

“You be careful too.”

“I’ll handle it, so don’t worry.”

“Yeah, right.”

Well, actually, things have been fine so far without any major issues.

It’s been about 7 months since I first met Sihee, and about 5 months since I first met Eunbyul.

Excluding Do Yehee, whom I sporadically inserted my cock into for punitive purposes, the time since I met the other two women from the Foundation wasn’t exactly short.

Considering there haven’t been any signs of major problems yet, I guess I don’t need to worry too much about relationships between men and women, at least.

Besides, I had no intention of getting involved with any other women from the Foundation besides Sihee and Eunbyul.

…Probably not?

“Starting next week, I guess I’ll be back with the original party. It was tough doing solo activities for almost three months.”

“Why are you counting, Han Min-ah, excluding the times we went in just the two of us?”

“You weren’t coming into the company often anyway. Going in just the two of us wasn’t much different from going alone.”

“What are you talking about? If I hadn’t been there today, you would have gotten hurt by a blind attack.”

“Yeah~. I did all the pathfinding and trap disarming~. A tank is supposed to protect the support combatant, so stop bragging about doing your job, keke.”

“With your lacking combat ability, you can only handle B-class dungeons without me, yet you’re acting tough.”

“You don’t have many A-class dungeons you can enter alone without me either. I guarantee it, if you had gone to the dungeon we ran today alone, you would have gotten lost in the dungeon….”

After exchanging meaningless banter, teasing and criticizing each other like that.

Finally, we naturally parted ways after chatting about the Sky Blue Shield, which would be reuniting in full force starting next week.

It was a little disappointing that dungeon expeditions like this, just the two of us, would end starting next week.

---

After seeing Han Min-ah off on her external guild assignment to the Foundation.

I also spent the afternoon leisurely working my part-time job as a healer in the company’s treatment room instead of heading into a dungeon.

For one thing, efficiency drops when I go into a dungeon alone without Min-ah, so this way brings in a bit more income than forcing myself into a dungeon.

And as I thought when I left this morning, I really didn’t feel like dedicating much thought to dungeon exploration today.

When I go with Min-ah, she handles all the troublesome parts, so I just need to swing my shield and sword at the enemies in front of me.

But when I go alone, I inevitably have to pay extra attention to things like finding the path and watching my surroundings.

And like Min-ah said, it’s difficult to enter labyrinth-type dungeons with complex paths or many traps alone.

It stings my pride a bit, feeling like I’m losing to her, but I have to admit what needs admitting.

While recalling the earlier events in my mind, I treated the injuries of a company hunter who visited the treatment room with my hands.

“Ah, ugh, ugh, aaaah…”

“Yes~. The burn on your arm is all healed now, No-eul-ssi. Please be careful not to get hurt next time.”

“Ah, yes, yes…”

S-class hunter Jung No-eul, fussing over the burned area with some dramatic sounds.

I heard she’s one of only five S-class hunters currently at the company.

She wasn’t quite like the twins, but after running into her a few times in the treatment room, I’d gotten somewhat used to her.

She seemed strangely lacking in confidence for an S-class hunter, though.

…Or maybe, like Do Yehee, she’s just not used to men.

“Ah, th-th-that is…”

Even after I finished treating the wound on her forearm, she remained in the treatment room, starting to speak the next words.

I figured waiting for her to get the words out herself would take ages, so I shrewdly anticipated what she might say next and asked.

“Yes. Are there any other injuries anywhere else?”

“A-actually, I think I might have gotten a slight injury on my chest earlier…. C-can you take a look?”

“……What?!”

Jung No-eul’s sudden, shocking confession made my voice naturally rise.

An injury to the chest area would likely be far more serious than the burn on her arm.

Why didn’t she mention the more critical injury first and instead push her arm forward so abruptly?

“Let me see!”

“Ah, uh, just a moment….”

“Where?! Around your sternum? Or your collarbone? Or maybe… under your underwear?”

“N-no, uh, that’s…”

I lifted the front of her shirt to quickly check for injuries, but I couldn’t see anything visibly wrong.

Just as I was about to cautiously ask for her consent, thinking it might be under her underwear, Jung No-eul’s answer stunned me.

“I-it hurts… on the inside of my chest….”

“……What?”

“E-every time I see you, Healer-nim… my chest feels like it’s being stabbed from the inside…. I mean, what I’m trying to say is… it’s not actually hurting…”

“……”

“Ah, aaaah…”

The S-class hunter buried her face in her hands and bowed her head, perhaps overcome with shame from her own words.

I let go of her lifted shirt and reacted as calmly as possible.

“Next, please~.”

“S-sorry…!”

Realizing her clumsy attempt at seduction had failed, Jung No-eul quickly adjusted her clothes and bolted out of the treatment room.

Through the closing treatment room door, I could faintly hear her conversation with another colleague.

‘Hey, Sung Chae-eun! It didn’t work even though I did exactly what you said!’

‘Pfft! Wh-what, did you actually do it? Seriously?’

‘Hey! You said this is how you seduce men!’

‘Ah, heh heh, Jung No-eul is hilarious…. Let’s go grab some food, I’ll treat you to celebrate your heartbreak, heh heh….’

‘Seriously, if I ever ask you how to seduce men again….’

S-class hunter Jung No-eul retreated, protesting to her colleague with a bright red face.

It wasn’t that I hadn’t noticed her feelings towards me.

She was expressing her favor so openly; it was impossible not to notice.

Yet, I deliberately acted like I was putting up an impenetrable wall for two main reasons.

Firstly, because I had no intention of expanding the list of ‘lust management’ hunters in my current situation.

And secondly, judging by the amount of ‘points’ next to her face, she didn’t seem to have accumulated much lust anyway.

She seemed to be approaching me with something other than lust in mind, but conversely, that meant she wasn’t desperately in need of a man.

After all, she probably wouldn’t still be active as an S-class hunter if she were that desperate.

Still, it’s a bit puzzling that she keeps showing such blatant favor every time we meet.

‘Well, that’s none of my business.’

Right now, I was busy enough just relieving the lust of the other hunters I was meeting, so I didn’t have the bandwidth to focus on another woman.

I simply dealt with the next patient naturally flowing into the treatment room.

“Oppa, Oppa! We’re here!”

“You’ve come to work after a long time, Oraboni.”

“You guys aren’t even injured today…”

“Hehe, we just came to visit!”

After that, I had a brief chat with the twins, who stopped by the treatment room just to show their faces even though they weren’t injured.

As I started to feel like the crowd had thinned out, I finished preparing to leave work before it got too late in the evening.

Because starting today, there was someone waiting for me when I returned home.

Unlike before.