The Ancestor of the Punishment Team, Arashi(4)

“Stop right there. Don’t move any further, Hunter Ha Se-young.”

The moment Arashi opened the door and spoke, Seo-hyun made a quick judgment and moved.

She drew the greatsword she had been carrying on her back and pointed it at Se-young who had turned around, and pushed Arashi, who was trying to poke her head out rudely, back into the room.

Currently, Arashi wasn’t wearing any mask or cloak at all.

As her bare face and identity should not be shown to Se-young, Seo-hyun cautiously bowed her head to Arashi while keeping Se-young in check and said:

“Ancestor, our exclusive hunter is here. Please don’t come out for a while.”

“I see. Understood.”

Hearing Seo-hyun’s words, Arashi seemed to have grasped the situation roughly and shortened her words as she went back into the guest room.

Expressing gratitude for her quick-witted action, Seo-hyun turned back to Se-young standing opposite her.

“As I said before, our Ancestor is here. Since she’s still here, I’d appreciate it if you don’t move rashly from that spot.”

“Yes, I know. No matter how angry I am, I’m not crazy enough to go to a place where I could see the Ancestor’s face.”

Although she was worried that the lid had blown off, fortunately, Se-young seemed to have at least a minimum of rationality left as she nodded obediently to Seo-hyun’s words and answered.

Se-young didn’t move any further from where she had turned, as if she really had no intention of breaking her word.

Seo-hyun had been ready to immediately cut off an arm or leg if she showed even the slightest sign of movement, but she swallowed a sigh of relief that such a situation didn’t occur.

However, just as she swallowed that sigh of relief, Se-young, who had been standing in place, suddenly raised her voice and asked Seo-hyun a question.

“But if it’s alright, can I say just one thing to that Shin-yeon bit… person who seems to be inside?”

A question that didn’t even need to be answered.

Thinking that she must have gone quite mad to say such things in this place where Arashi was clearly listening, Seo-hyun opened her mouth to answer.

“No. First, return to the tower right now……”

“I don’t mind, Team Leader Seo-hyun.”

However, Seo-hyun’s words couldn’t be finished.

Before Seo-hyun could finish speaking, Shin-yeon walked out from inside the guest room, interrupting Seo-hyun’s words.

Shin-yeon, who had walked out acting as herself as an A-rank hunter rather than the ancestor of the General Management Team as she had been until just now, interrupted Seo-hyun’s words like that and then took off the blindfold she had worn at some point and blinked her eyes.

“My eyes feel stiff after being covered for so long.”

Shin-yeon acted as if she had been covering her eyes while meeting Arashi until just now.

After blinking her eyes a few more times, Shin-yeon looked at Se-young, who was standing opposite with a ferociously distorted expression.

Seo-hyun raised all her nerves in case Se-young suddenly rushed in, but fortunately, she only expressed her anger on her face without moving her body.

And Shin-yeon looked at Se-young like that and opened her mouth with a relaxed smile.

“I just heard, was it Ha Se-young? What business do you have with me that you look so angry?”

“……Finally showing your face. It’s nothing else but I heard some shitty… no, unpleasant news as soon as I returned to the country.”

Se-young barely managed to filter her words as if several filters in her head had already been blown out by anger.

However, as if she thought it was useless to even explain why she came, Se-young cracked her knuckles and pointed at Shin-yeon, saying:

“I won’t say much. Fight a duel with me for that A-rank 1st place. If I win, you’ll give back that position you unfairly took from me.”

“……Huh, is there any reason I should accept that challenge?”

It was a reasonable statement. After all, from Shin-yeon’s standpoint, it was a duel she could accept or not as she pleased.

However, to this answer from Shin-yeon, Se-young snickered and replied:

“If you’re a hunter, you should accept, right? Because that’s the rule.”

“Rule…? Team Leader Seo-hyun, is what she’s saying true?”

“……That’s right. There is such a rule among hunters.”

Seo-hyun had no choice but to nod at Shin-yeon’s question asking about the truth.

After all, Se-young’s words were nothing but the truth.

The system of “duels” created for hunters, where everything from reputation to skill is determined by rankings.

It was difficult to overturn the rankings between hunters just by going through dungeons and catching monsters in the same way, so the Punishment Team created the system of duels in the hunter world as a way to bridge that stagnant gap.

A duel for rank exchange that a lower-ranked hunter can propose to a higher-ranked hunter once every six months.

Of course, since their jobs were different, there were various types of duels, but in most cases, duels were simply conducted in a 1-on-1 battle format.

“In other words, since I’m 1st and that person is 2nd, I inevitably have to accept the duel……”

“As you’re both vanguard-type hunters, the duel will be conducted as a simple battle.”

“I see, I understand.”

Shin-yeon nodded in understanding at Seo-hyun’s explanation.

And after listening to Seo-hyun’s explanation for a moment, Shin-yeon turned back to Se-young and said:

“Alright, I’ll accept the duel you requested.”

“Good, that’s how it should be. Then come to the association tomorrow since there won’t be any audience if we prepare from today. I’ll kill you in the duel.”

“Hmm… Well, if you can.”

Shin-yeon shrugged indifferently even at the provocative words.

Seeing Shin-yeon like that, Se-young gritted her teeth again, but this was not a place where she could swear.

So all she could do was chew her gall as if it would be crushed and turn back to prepare for tomorrow.

Therefore, Se-young glared at Shin-yeon until the end and turned to leave, and at the moment she was about to lift her feet that had been standing still.

A voice holding back her ankle echoed from inside the guest room.

“Would you wait a moment? Hunter Se-young.”

“……Ancestor?”

The one who spoke was none other than Arashi, who was inside the guest room.

Standing at the threshold that only Seo-hyun could see, Arashi stopped Se-young who was about to leave and unfolded the fan she had been holding while letting out a somewhat chilling smile.

“If you came in here so recklessly and requested a duel with Hunter Shin-yeon, does that mean you’re that confident?”

“Of course, I am.”

Se-young swallowed a moment of hesitation and answered like that to Arashi’s subtle question with an unknown meaning.

And as if pleased with that answer, Arashi fluttered the fan she had unfolded once and set out one condition to Se-young.

“Then if Hunter Se-young loses in the duel, Hunter Se-young will be permanently expelled from our Punishment Team’s exclusive hunter team. If you’re confident you’ll win, it’s as good as a non-existent condition, so there’s no problem, right?”

“What?! W-wait a moment, Ancestor! That’s too sudd…!”

“Hunter Ha Se-young, are you objecting to the Ancestor’s words right now?”

“Ugh… N-no, I’m not.”

“Then quietly go back. As the Ancestor said, if you’re confident you’ll win, it’s a condition you don’t even need to worry about, isn’t it?”

“……I understand.”

Before Se-young could say anything, Seo-hyun stepped in and cut her off, so Se-young had no choice but to close her mouth and turn back completely.

However, even with such a condition attached, it seemed her confidence that she would win hadn’t crumbled, as a hint of ridiculous confidence could be seen in her back view.

Thud– Thud–

And showing such a back view, Se-young soon disappeared from the corridor.

Seo-hyun looked at the corridor where she had disappeared for a few seconds and then let out a groan at the painful future.

She couldn’t have imagined that Se-young would barge in here and cause such a commotion as soon as she returned to the country.

Thinking about what would happen if it spread into a bigger problem, Seo-hyun felt her head truly starting to ache, but only for a moment.

Soon, Seo-hyun turned her head at Arashi’s mischievous voice heard from beside her.

“Ufufu, if you wish, I can take care of her before the duel happens, but what would you like to do? Miss Shin-yeon.”

“No need, just leave her be. An amusing human is putting on a show, so we should enjoy it.”

“Ahah! That’s right. It’s fun to see humans crushed by their own arrogance. Then can I look forward to it?”

“Well, I don’t think there will be a particularly interesting sight since I’ve already faced an A-rank before, but…”

Shin-yeon and Arashi were chattering as if seeing Se-young, who had just caused a commotion and left, as merely a toy.

As a human, Seo-hyun found it hard to empathize, but at least seeing the two of them looking unbothered, Seo-hyun could only swallow a deflated laugh inwardly.

Fortunately, it seemed that for the two of them, the current incident was felt as just an amusing part of their everyday life.

---

In the fitness room that exists in the Hunter Association.

“Huff, huff……”

A woman who was training her body there suddenly opened her half-closed eyes at the sound of her device ringing.

“……What is it?”

A notification message from her helper.

The woman turned on her device to check the message, as it was a new notification rather than the usual ranking update table.

“Public duel……”

She muttered, speaking the single word written in the message.

A public duel to be held tomorrow afternoon. And it was a duel between A-rank hunters.

Unlike lower-ranked hunters who don’t have many spectators, duels between A-rank hunters are quite precious.

Therefore, even a woman who doesn’t have much interest in this kind of thing couldn’t help but feel some interest, and when she checked the names of the hunters who would be dueling, she couldn’t help but light up her eyes even more.

“Hunter Shin-yeon and Hunter Ha Se-young are having a duel, you say…?”

In other words, a duel between the ‘current A-rank 1st hunter’ and the ‘former A-rank 1st hunter’.

According to the rumors she had heard, Ha Se-young had been dispatched to China for support, so it seems she didn’t know she had lost her ranking because of that.

So it seemed she tried to reclaim her lost position as soon as she returned.

A duel between the 1st and 2nd place among A-rank hunters, the highest rank except for S-rank.

The woman muttered softly while wiping off her dripping sweat at that match which couldn’t help but be interesting no matter how you looked at it.

“Should I go tomorrow……”

This duel, which is difficult to see even once in a few years, would be worth taking some time for.

The S-rank 1st hunter, Park Ye-in.

The woman made a small decision during her break in the fitness room.