Interlude – After the Duel…

The duel that was suddenly decided and held was concluded successfully.

In a way, it was a one-sided fight, but all the hunters gathered in the spectator seats left noisily saying they had a good show, and even the S-rank hunter Ye-in, who had come to watch secretly, had disappeared into that atmosphere at some point.

And after such a well-concluded duel, I went up to the VIP room.

To be honest, I wanted to go straight back to the tower with my body covered in dirt and dust, but shouldn’t I return together with those who came to watch?

So I went up to the VIP room and met Neon, Arashi, and Seo-hyun who were there, and led by Arashi who was praising me close to fawning saying it was really fun, I returned to the flagship with the three of them.

Of course, I was a bit puzzled for a moment because Yeon-ah wasn’t visible for some reason, but Yeon-ah joined us when we came out to return to the flagship.

Thud– Thud–

“You were still here.”

“Yeon-ah? What, where have you been until now?”

“I’m sorry for being late, Ancestor. I had some business to take care of, so I was away for a moment.”

“Well, it doesn’t really matter that you’re late.”

When we were about to depart for the flagship, I turned my head at the sound of footsteps from behind and saw Yeon-ah walking towards us.

And then Yeon-ah immediately bowed her head and answered like that to my question.

Since Yeon-ah is someone who doesn’t do unnecessary things in the first place, I waved my hand at her saying there was no need to apologize, but suddenly I slightly twitched the corner of my eye at the fishy iron scent emanating from Yeon-ah.

‘Did she kill someone or something…?’

『Seeing how thoroughly she tried to erase the smell of blood… It seems she wanted to hide it from you, Shin-yeon.』

Seeing how thoroughly she tried to hide the smell of blood, it seems she killed someone somewhere out of our sight.

And as Hwa-gon said, judging by her demeanor of wanting to hide it from me, it seemed to be something done for my sake anyway.

I wanted to ask her right now who she had killed, but with Neon, Arashi, and Seo-hyun also present here, it would be better to ask after returning to the tower first.

Therefore, thinking to postpone this question for later, I turned my steps that had stopped due to Yeon-ah’s joining again.

“Well, now that Yeon-ah is here too, let’s go again.”

“Yes, Ancestor. Ah, um… Lady Arashi. I’d like to have a conversation for a moment after returning to the tower, would that be alright?”

“Me…? Yes, of course I don’t mind.”

The natural return journey formed again with Yeon-ah joining.

I stepped out under the still brightly shining sun while stroking Neon’s soft hair walking beside me.

The afternoon return journey with Neon’s shout of “Wah!” following in anger.

For some reason, today that felt tiring in many ways was still flowing on.

---

A few minutes after returning from the duel ground by flagship.

Yeon-ah, who had sent Shin-yeon and Neon to the tower first, was currently in the Ancestor’s room in the Punishment Team’s tower, following Arashi and Seo-hyun.

Thud—

“…Well then.”

And finally, as the door closed, Arashi spoke first.

With Seo-hyun standing straight beside her, Arashi, sitting on a cushion, opened her mouth looking at Yeon-ah who was kneeling on a cushion as well.

“Shall we hear why you requested to talk to me?”

“…Before speaking about that, I’ll apologize first.”

“Hmm?”

To Arashi, who made an ambiguous expression as if asking what she meant, Yeon-ah bowed deeply at the waist.

Then Yeon-ah took out her device and held it out to Arashi, showing the answer to her question.

“I detected malicious movements of people who seemed to be in collusion with Hunter Ha Se-young and dealt with them from my side first. I apologized because I did something disrespectful.”

“Aha… I see, for some reason Seo-hyun said earlier that she couldn’t find Hunter Se-young. I thought she had fled pathetically, but that wasn’t it?”

“Yes, I killed her.”

What was displayed on the device Yeon-ah held out was none other than the shape of something that had turned to ashes.

It was so horribly burnt to the point of becoming charcoal and finely minced to the point where it couldn’t regenerate that its original identity was unrecognizable, but from Yeon-ah’s words, Arashi and Seo-hyun could tell what those ashes were.

Hunter Ha Se-young.

She was the ashes displayed in the photo on Yeon-ah’s device.

And realizing this, Arashi tapped the floor a few times with the fan she was holding, then met Yeon-ah’s gaze again and asked.

“The malicious actions Yeon-ah mentioned… were malicious actions against Shin-yeon, right?”

“As you say.”

“…Then I can’t hold you responsible. It’s true that I wanted to deal with it myself, but Yeon-ah was just doing her job too.”

Protecting one’s own Ancestor is a duty that must be carried out as a team leader of the Five Pillars.

In that aspect, Yeon-ah’s consideration for Arashi herself couldn’t take precedence, so even as an Ancestor, there was no point that could be pointed out.

Therefore, Arashi nodded without dwelling on Yeon-ah’s actions.

Of course, it was inevitable that regret seeped through in that acknowledgment, so Seo-hyun, who was standing beside her, held an awkward smile on her lips, but fortunately, the woman named Yeon-ah who committed this act was a person with superior coping ability in such cases than anyone else.

Ahem—!

“Instead, if I may, I’d like to give you a piece of information.”

“…What information are you talking about?”

“Well… For example, something like ‘all observation information about the Ancestor’ that I have. How about it?”

Yeon-ah offered something that Arashi would desperately want, given her personality, even though Arashi had only become friends with Shin-yeon just two days ago.

And naturally, at that proposal, Arashi.

“R-really? You’re saying you’ll give such information?!”

She was unable to contain her excitement, her eyes sparkling like a three-year-old child.

Arashi looked at Yeon-ah as if she would shoot beams from her eyes, her previous appearance of regretting having Se-young, whom she wanted to deal with herself, taken away nowhere to be seen.

“Of course. It wouldn’t be bad for me either if Lady Arashi becomes good friends with our Ancestor.”

And to such an Arashi, Yeon-ah changed the screen of her device and showed it with a grin.

The two, whose distance had suddenly narrowed, thus lit the fire of conversation with stories about Shin-yeon, and Seo-hyun let out a chuckle watching such a scene.

“…She must be very tired.”

How could she not be tired with two such genuinely devoted people to the point of being bothersome?

A sympathetic laugh of pity for Shin-yeon flowed softly from Seo-hyun’s mouth.

---

“Hey, did you hear?”

In the late afternoon when the hour hand was approaching 6.

After the peaceful bell sound, someone’s voice echoed in the classroom where the time to go home had come.

And a few students turned their heads at those words. The first student who had successfully created an audience continued speaking while shrugging to those with curious expressions.

“I heard we’re getting a transfer student in our class. I don’t know if the transfer student is a boy or a girl though.”

“At this time? No, isn’t it rare for someone to transfer to a hunter training high school in the first place?”

Those words, still just news, that a transfer student was coming.

However, when one student answered those words, other students also opened their mouths, and as those increased mouths began to talk only about the transfer student, a female student sitting in the front row of the class also became interested in the story.

“Is it true that a transfer student is coming?”

“Ah, Ju-ri.”

The girl who got up from her seat, swinging her black long hair that reached down to her waist.

Ju-ri, as she was called, stood up from her seat asking that to the child who first brought up the story of the transfer student, and he scratched his head and answered.

“I just heard it while passing by the teachers’ office, but I think it’s probably true? Our homeroom teacher and the vice principal were talking about it.”

“Hmm… Is that so?”

Ju-ri let out a nasal sound at the boy’s words saying it was almost certainly true.

Then she showed a light eye smile while closing her sharp but pretty eyes.

“I hope it’s a transfer student with good skills who would be fit to come to our Gaeam High School.”

“U-uh… Yeah, I hope so.”

When Ju-ri said that while giving an eye smile, the students around Ju-ri, including the boy who first brought up the story, responded with awkward smiles.

Then they quickly left their seats.

Seeing their appearance of obviously being uncomfortable with her, Ju-ri snorted and finished packing her bag that she had stopped midway, then slung it over her shoulder.

Then two female students approached Ju-ri’s side.

“Ju-ri, are you leaving now?”

“Aren’t you going to hang out with us today?”

“Ah, yeah. I have some business today, after all.”

Since they were always just flattering her, Ju-ri showed an annoyed expression, but the two just smiled brightly as if it wasn’t a big deal.

And since Ju-ri had already realized that paying attention to them would only be a loss for herself, she cut off her attention from the two clinging to her and began to sink back into her thoughts from earlier.

‘A transfer student…’

She didn’t know how great they would be, but at least hopefully they would have skills up to the average.

Enough not to offend the eye of herself, Na Ju-ri, the daughter of the Geumryu Team leader.