Chapter 572: Rank S Hunter Promotion (2)

-Knock, knock, knock.

“President-nim, it’s me, Sung Taekyung.”

“……Come in.”

A voice followed after a brief silence. As I entered, hearing a voice that sounded subtly, perhaps slightly, different, I saw the President-nim, who always looked the same, sitting behind a desk with a nameplate reading Seo Ok-hee, gazing at me. Her youthful appearance, which never seemed to match her stiff, formal suit and middle-schooler-like impression, was unchanged today as always….

‘……Huh?’

No, that wasn’t it. Today, the President-nim’s impression was subtly different from when I saw her two weeks ago. Slightly, but compared to before, she had definitely grown a bit taller, and the aura she gave off felt subtly different too. If the President-nim until now had the image of a middle school first-grader at best, today’s President-nim felt more like a middle school third-grader, shall we say. Having the memory of meeting her in the dungeon just two weeks ago, the President-nim then and the President-nim now contrasted sharply in my memory.

“What are you doing just standing there without coming in?”

“Ah, no…. I was just thinking for a moment….”

“You were having a rude thought, weren’t you?”

“I don’t know if I should call it a rude thought…. What should I say….”

It was a moment where I debated whether I should even bring this up, but no matter how I looked at it, it was too awkward to just let it slide. I quietly braced myself in my heart and asked about what I had felt.

“President-nim, did you perhaps grow taller?”

“…So it was a rude thought after all.”

“No, well. Growing physically is a good thing in a sense….”

Sometimes, Hunters with excessively strong abilities experience changes in their growth periods compared to ordinary people. That’s why Eunyoung Noona maintains a figure that could still pass for a current university student. In the President-nim’s case, her prime came at such a young age that her physical growth was also aligned with that youthful prime. But for some reason, I don’t know why, the President-nim I met again after two weeks since seeing her in the abandoned dungeon had grown noticeably taller, even to my eyes. Faced with this sudden growth spurt, I naturally had to offer a reasonable guess to her.

“Perhaps, President-nim, your prime has ended and your body is suddenly starting to age….”

“…Taekyung-ah.”

“Yes.”

“I don’t hold back just because you’re a guy.”

“I’m sorry…!”

Feeling a sudden, intense killing intent, my back automatically bent as I offered my apology. Seeing me like that, the President-nim sighed as if exasperated, then answered my question more calmly than I expected.

“It’s true that I’ve suddenly started growing taller recently. I’ve grown about 10 centimeters in the past two weeks.”

“Oh, um…. Congratulations…?”

“But I haven’t felt any decrease in my awakened abilities or anything like that because of it. This is my first time experiencing this, so I don’t really know.”

“If your body is just growing while maintaining your awakened abilities, isn’t that still not bad?”

“Because I don’t know if there are any side effects. If my awakened abilities were weakening as my body grew, I could at least understand it, but the fact that all my original awakened abilities are perfectly fine makes me more worried.”

…Right, thinking about it that way, the non-weakening side might actually be more stressful. Still, since she said there were no noticeable side effects yet, I could only hope in my heart that it wouldn’t be anything serious.

“Let’s stop the small talk. You didn’t come here today just to chat with me, anyway.”

“That’s true.”

“First, sign the A-Class Hunter Promotion contract. Because of what happened at the abandoned village last time, there are many other documents to process besides this one.”

“Yes.”

It seemed the President-nim was busy too, considering the monster we caught. I quickly approached the table where the President-nim was to receive the documents she handed over, and as I reached out to take the few pages she held, it happened.

-Thump.

“Ughh?!”

“……?”

The moment our hands brushed slightly as I was receiving the documents the President-nim was handing me, she suddenly let out a strange scream and shot her hand up. As a result, instead of reaching my hands, the few documents held by President Seo Ok-hee scattered into individual pages in the air. I could only cautiously observe her strange behavior.

“President-nim…?”

“…Sorry, I was just startled for a moment.”

“Were you perhaps angry with me because of my question earlier….”

“It’s nothing like that. I was just momentarily surprised.”

“Ah, yes….”

Was she really that surprised just because our fingers touched a little? I don’t remember her being this type of person. After all, from our very first meeting, she had sliced her own palm with a cutter knife and then made me hold her hand to treat it. So there’s no way she’d be surprised now just because our fingers touched… she must have just been lost in thought and got startled. Thinking that, I picked up the scattered documents from the floor and sorted them in order. Then, I stood awkwardly across from the table where the President-nim was sitting and began filling out the blanks one by one.

-Scratch, scratch.

“……Hey.”

“Yes?”

“Don’t write it here, go write it at the sofa table over there.”

“……What?”

“…You look uncomfortable. The table is suited for my height, so it’s inconvenient for you to write there.”

“It doesn’t really matter. There’s no need to go all the way over there just to be bothered….”

“I told you to go write at the sofa table.”

“……Yes.”

…She seems quite on edge today. It seems what I said earlier about her prime ending might have offended her. Or perhaps the stress from her anxiety about her body growing is piling up. Trying to make up for it with clumsy apologies might just backfire, so all I could do was quietly watch my step and focus on the paperwork. Thus, banished to the sofa table in the center of the office, I signed the 「A-Class Hunter Promotion Contract」 and other supplementary documents, then returned them to the President-nim sitting at the main table.

“I’ve finished signing, President-nim.”

“Alright, then next, sign these as well. …At that sofa table over there.”

“Why are there so many? Didn’t you call me here to promote me to A-Class?”

“That’s part of it, but I obviously didn’t call you just for that.”

“What?”

As I tilted my head, asking what she meant, President Seo Ok-hee looked exasperated and explained.

“Did you really think you’d just get away with causing such a commotion in the abandoned village? Besides, I heard you went all the way to the bottom of the Poison Lake and barely made it out alive, right?”

“Ah, yes. It was just luck, by chance….”

“And do you even know what grade the monster you guys caught that day was? No, actually, it was a monster that had a bounty placed on it at the national level from the start. Normally, it would have been impossible to catch, stuck at the bottom of the Poison Lake, but you lured it out and finished the hunt.”

…Should what happened back then be called luring? We four were just happened to be near the Poison Lake in Area A when that boss monster woke up, and due to the resulting ground collapse, we almost all died falling into the Poison Lake, but Lulusia saved us all with her barrier. Then, sinking to the bottom of the lake, we made eye contact with it, and somehow managed to survive and return thanks to my awakened ability and Cha Yuri’s wind magic. Even the final battle, under normal circumstances, we would have tried to escape without engaging. Seeing Cha Yuri and Do Yehee, who were running away with me, visibly tiring out, I couldn’t leave them behind, so it was a battle I had no choice but to start. Later, I heard the warp gate was broken, so perhaps we would have had to start fighting somehow anyway. Looking back now, it was closer to a miraculous achievement made possible by a series of coincidences, luck, and the convergence of useful personnel who happened to be around.

“Well, I know you guys didn’t initially intend to lure the Three-Headed Basilisk, and that you chose to flee instead of fighting, only switching to combat out of necessity.”

“Yes….”

“But that doesn’t negate the achievement your party made. Regardless, thanks to the decision you made, the boss monster of the abandoned village was subjugated, and the Poison Lake in Area A, which we had to leave unattended for a while, can now begin its purification process. And if we clear out the monsters in other areas, the problem won’t escalate further after this.”

“Is it confirmed that that thing was the boss monster? Is there a possibility there was another one….”

“The Three-Headed Basilisk has already been confirmed as SS-class, and we’ve verified that there are no signs of any stronger monsters in the Poison Lake. If there had been even one more monster of similar caliber in the lake, the abandoned village wouldn’t have been rated as a B-class dungeon.”

…That’s true. If there had been a stronger monster as the boss, the dungeon known as the abandoned village should have been at least A-class or higher. Besides, the barrier created by the Holy Priests couldn’t possibly have contained a monster stronger than the Three-Headed Basilisk. Although I was unsure at the moment we caught it, it seemed the monster that I and the other Hunters caught was indeed the boss monster of the abandoned village.

“And it’s not like you’re the only one getting special compensation. The Hunters who participated in the fight, including you, are all scheduled to receive rewards. Of course, as the leader, you’ll receive a bit more than the others.”

“Leader? The leader of the Sky Blue Shield isn’t me, it’s Hye-eun….”

“I saw the recorded footage, are you trying to spout nonsense? You were the one who decided to take down the boss monster, you were the one who assigned roles and devised the strategy based on the monster’s characteristics, and you were the one who landed the final blow on the most dangerous head. If that’s not being a leader, then what is?”

“…….”

“Besides, it wasn’t just the Sky Blue Shield members fighting that day; Foundation Hunters were mixed in too. You were the one who commanded and led the battle for both sides, so you’re the leader.”

…Hearing you put it like that, I really have nothing to say. President Seo Ok-hee seemed to take my quiet response as agreement, and immediately continued to explain the additional compensation that would be given to me and my colleagues.

“First, all the Sky Blue Shield members who participated in the battle that day will be promoted one rank. Since all four of you were A-class, you’ll all become A+ class.”

“All of them, A+ class….”

“And you, because you’re the leader, will go up two ranks.”

“Two ranks? So does that mean I’ll be A+ class too?”

“…I said two ranks. Can’t you do basic math?”

I had asked because I thought two ranks up from B-class would make me A+ class, but the President-nim just looked at me with an exasperated expression and criticized me. She immediately held out the 「A+ Class Hunter Promotion Contract」 and the 「S Class Hunter Promotion Contract」 in both hands and said.

“A-class for supporting the abandoned village recovery efforts. A+ class for participating in the Three-Headed Basilisk subjugation operation. And since you’re the leader, you get one more special promotion to S-class.”

“…….”

“It’s annoying, so sign quickly. There are still about five or six more documents for you to sign.”

“Ah, ahaha….”

It hasn’t even been a year since I gained the awakened ability called Hunter Lust Manager. Just yesterday I was a B-class Hunter, and now, overnight, I’ve become an S-class Hunter.