Chapter Please

Chapter Please

 

After getting permission from Perseus, Han A-rin snapped her fingers and magically unlocked the lock.

I blinked at the lock falling off so easily, almost anticlimactically, then gathered my wits and carefully peered inside.

‘It was said to be on the topmost floor.’

Although anxiety crept in, wondering if what I had heard might be fake.

But as my intuition was growing strongly that I shouldn’t ignore this, I steeled my resolve and slowly looked around.

‘There’s nothing particularly special on the first floor.’

Of course, it wasn’t completely devoid of information.

Judging by the white dust accumulated everywhere, it seemed to have been abandoned for a long time.

But seeing footprints scattered near the passageway, it appeared someone had been passing through here.

As I saw this, thinking that there might really be someone on the top floor, I tightly held onto Seo-rin’s clothes.

Seo-rin smiles brightly at me as if everything is fine and says.

“Don’t worry, I’ll protect Ha-eun and Chae-a by any means necessary. Understand?”

It’s somewhat reassuring when the protagonist, who isn’t an ordinary person, says such things.

Although embarrassed, I nod my head as a sign of asking for help, and Seo-rin gives a small smile and is about to move forward.

“Seo-rin, are you stupid?”

Han A-rin stops Seo-rin and shakes her head.

“Huh?”

Seo-rin turns around with a blank expression, seemingly not understanding why Han A-rin stopped her.

Han A-rin shrugs her shoulders and continues speaking while looking at Seo-rin.

“While the main role of a hunter is combat, that doesn’t mean we always have to engage in battle.”

Seo-rin makes a face that shows she doesn’t quite understand this somewhat confusing statement.

Han A-rin takes out her phone again and adds an explanation.

“In other words, it’s better to avoid combat if possible.”

“That’s true… But is there a way to avoid it now? We don’t even know if a battle will happen or not.”

At those words, Han A-rin chuckles and looks around.

“Who’s the manager here?”

“It’s Perseus.”

“In other words, Perseus is responsible for all management here.”

As I tilt my head, wondering if that’s the right way to think about it.

Han A-rin, seemingly deciding there’s no particular problem, calls Perseus again and briefly says.

“Ha-eun and Chae-a are here. We found suspicious traces at the clock tower in the amusement park.”

– What?

As soon as the response is heard from the phone, Han A-rin turns off her phone as if all business is finished.

I stand there with my mouth open, dumbfounded by Han A-rin’s completely unreasonable behavior.

Han A-rin smiled at my expression and held up three fingers while saying,

“Ha-eun, shall I show you something fun? One, two, three.”

 

The moment she shouted “three,” the mana around us rippled, and a man tore through space as if ripping it apart and walked out.

Seeing this, I was startled and clung tightly to Seo-rin.

 

Perseus, who walked out, spoke with a frown,

“Where are Ha-eun and Chae-a?”

 

At those words, I briefly wondered if I should pretend to know him.

Since there wasn’t enough space to bow, I gently waved my hand, and Perseus let out a sigh of relief and said,

 

“Are you okay… That’s good then.”

Han A-rin giggled at this sight and said playfully,

 

“You look like a worried dad who rushed here after hearing rumors that his daughter was hurt.”

“Be quiet.”

 

“I meant it as a compliment, why are you like that?”

Perseus seemed to have a lot to say, but as if he decided not to, he blatantly ignored the comment and got to the point.

 

“So what’s the problem?”

“The top floor.”

 

At those words, Perseus silently looked up, then let out a hollow laugh and grabbed his sword.

“It’s definitely anomalous. To the point where I wonder why we didn’t discover this until now.”

 

“Right? I didn’t notice at first either, but I realized it after being inside for a few minutes.”

Seo-rin, still not fully understanding, listened to their conversation with a puzzled reaction.

 

Chae-a, seemingly uninterested, was waving at a spider stuck on the ceiling, greeting it.

“So what do you want to do? Should we go in and catch them right away? Or should we use this to our advantage?”

 

“Well… If possible, it would be ideal to observe those guys and assess the situation. But since there’s a possibility of hostages like in other places, it might be better to subdue them immediately.”

“Then I’ll lay down a barrier, so please storm in with Seo-rin.”

 

At those words, Perseus looks at Seo-rin with an uneasy expression.

He probably thinks it would be better to go alone rather than taking Seo-rin, who is still an unproven rookie hunter.

 

I pondered for a moment looking at Perseus like that.

‘Even for the sake of Seo-rin’s combat experience.’

 

Hoping he would take her along, I mustered up courage and tried to look at him imploringly, clasping both hands together as if pleading.

“… Very well.”

 

Perseus accepted more easily than expected and moved forward.

My face felt very hot from the belated embarrassment rushing in.

 

But thinking I could endure this much shame for Seo-rin’s sake, I covered my face with both hands.

‘I might not be able to do this next time.’

 

As I was trembling, thinking my mind couldn’t handle it,

Seo-rin patted my head vigorously and briefly said,

 

“Then I’ll be going now, sis. Wait for me, okay?”

At those words, I nodded and grabbed Chae-a’s hand.

 

The result unfolded as expected.

With just Seo-rin, most problems tend to be easily solved, but with the addition of Perseus, a top-ranked hunter, it reached a level where it would be stranger if they couldn’t resolve it.

 

I tried to go up to the top floor to check who made the noise.

“No.”

Han A-rin, who usually allows everything, shook her head and hugged me.

“There are still too many scary things for Ha-eun to see. So let’s wait here quietly, okay?”

I was about to say it was fine, but.

Thinking rationally, even if I went up, there was nothing I could do.

‘What if I get kidnapped or taken hostage.’

I would cause all kinds of trouble, so rather than being stubborn, I nodded and decided to listen.

‘That’s better anyway.’

While I was wondering if there was anything I could do, I realized one thing that could be of great help.

‘Healing ability.’

If there were injured people, my ability would be of great help.

Deciding to help, I told this to Han A-rin.

Han A-rin, seemingly unable to refuse even this, nodded and said to me.

“… If it’s really an urgent situation, let’s have Ha-eun heal. If not, we’ll pass. Okay?”

As I was hooking my pinky finger with Han A-rin’s outstretched pinky finger.

Suddenly, Han A-rin’s phone started ringing.

Han A-rin checked it, let out a light sigh, and then said to me and Chae-a.

“They say it’s okay to come up now. Shall we go up?”

At those words, I hesitated for a moment before nodding.

*

The top floor revealed a solid mass of ice swirling with light blue and azure hues.

Although the weather had become somewhat chilly recently, we hadn’t completely left summer behind yet.

Seeing the scene covered in ice as if it were the Arctic brought on a tremendous sense of incongruity.

“… The mana structure is formed in a very peculiar way. There’s a high probability that this magic wasn’t manifested by a human.”

As I listened to Han A-rin muttering to herself beside me while looking around.

In the distance, I noticed Seo-rin and Perseus waving at us.

As soon as I saw this and informed Han A-rin of their location, she nodded and immediately headed in that direction.

As we approached, we saw a girl trapped in a massive block of ice.

A girl who looked about five years old, slightly taller than Chae-a, with long sky-blue hair.

As I silently watched this surreal scene for a moment.

Perseus approached me and made a request.

“Once we extract the child from the ice, could you use your healing ability?”

I nodded in response to this request and said.

“Yes.”

“Then I’ll trust you and leave it to you.”

With those words, Perseus grabbed his sword and was about to cut through the ice when.

As if remembering something, he paused for a moment and added one more thing to me.

“By the way, there’s no need to worry if it fails. We have healing potions, and if worst comes to worst, we can use spatial teleportation magic.”

That was probably the maximum consideration the stoic Perseus could show.

Grateful for his concern even in this urgent situation, I bowed slightly at the waist.

Perseus saw this and chuckled before cutting through the ice.

The moment the ice cracked, Seo-rin stretched out her hands and pushed the ice to both sides.

As the ice was larger than imagined, it didn’t seem to move easily.

However, by forcefully pushing it with mana, she managed to move it more easily than expected and succeeded in rescuing the girl.

“Ha-eun, I need your help.”

The moment I heard my name, I immediately blew out a breath and used my healing ability on the girl.

Actually, there was no need to blow out a breath.

But since the first time I successfully used my healing ability was when I blew out a breath, I felt more at ease doing it this way, so I blew out a breath.

Color gradually returned to her pale skin, and she started to return to normal.

‘Thank goodness.’

It seems the healing ability was properly applied.

While I was inwardly sighing with relief that it seemed to have worked well.

“……”

The girl lying on the floor regained consciousness and blankly opened her eyes, looking up at the ceiling.

Then she suddenly started trembling and twitching, and soon after, she weakly got up and began to run away.

‘It looks like she’s running away in shock.’

At times like this, rather than forcefully doing something, I decided to wait until she calmed down, and I was watching to see where she was going.

Suddenly, there was a thud sound from the front, and the girl fell to the floor.

It seems she hit her head on some nearby ice.

Thinking it must have hurt a lot, I was wondering what to do.

The girl with light blue hair got up from her spot rather nonchalantly.

She rubbed her forehead with both hands while looking around, then turned back to me and opened her mouth.

“It hurts… Please blow on it.”

Seeing the tears welling up in her eyes, I nodded blankly.