episode_0043

Natalia, who returned home after sending Han Soo-hyun away, was the first to stand in front of the mirror.

“Hmm….”

Maybe it’s because it’s been a while since I’ve had full makeup, but even after I fixed it, it still looked a bit awkward.

“Hey.”

“Yes? What’s going on? Hunter.”

“Is there anything strange about my makeup today?”

So, now that it was almost time to leave work, I called my secretary who was getting ready to leave work and asked her.

“No? Is it pretty?”

The secretary who came running after hearing the call gave the obvious answer.

But Natalia would probably have given the same answer even if she hadn’t been her employer.

“…That’s it. Go out.”

“Yes. I’ll just leave work. If anything happens, please contact me.”

“Got it.”

Natalia, who had some time to herself after sending her secretary off work, took a bath and took off her clothes.

As she soaked in the bathtub, she quietly reflected on the events of the day and fell into thought.

Natalia’s actions today were not, in fact, motivated by pure good intentions.

There were two main intentions behind her actions.

The first is to make Han Soo-hyun, who has never been able to indulge in extravagant things before, feel the taste of money.

‘If you have enough money, you become addicted to it, but if you don’t, there is no negative experience.’

Isn’t there a saying like that? The reason why traveling is fun is because you spend hundreds of thousands of won per day.

If you make someone spend an amount of money that is not appropriate for them, from then on, no matter what they do, only the memories of today will come back and they may become dissatisfied.

‘If that happens, he will increasingly fall into overconsumption.’

In the end, if you are unable to afford your spending, you may try to rely on the person with the highest income among your acquaintances.

If you continue to depend on that person as if you were drowning in a mire, at some point you may become unable to live without that person.

‘He’s not stupid. At that point, you will understand your situation objectively.’

Natalia closed her eyes for a moment and imagined Han Soo-hyun desperately trying not to be abandoned by her.

Some could say that it was ultimately an empty relationship built on money.

In the first place, Natalia wasn’t particularly interested in unclear emotions like destined love, and she had never experienced or wanted such a tickling emotional exchange, so it didn’t really matter.

She currently understood the feelings she had for Han Soo-hyun as ‘an object she wanted to own.’

‘Well, it doesn’t matter if she doesn’t overspend.’

From what I’ve seen of Han Soo-hyun so far, she seems closer to a person who just lives as the going goes without any great material desires or aspirations for success.

Still, Natalia’s intention was to show that she was the one who dressed Han Soo-hyun in luxury clothes.

Most of the people I would meet as interns from now on were A-class and S-class hunters.

Even though you received such a high grade, the fact that you bothered to work in a 3D job like a hunter means that there is a flaw somewhere.

I couldn’t guarantee that none of those idiots would touch Han Su-hyun.

‘If I’m just wearing normal clothes, they’ll think I’ll play with it for a while and throw it away, and they might even try messing with it for fun.’

However, what if an aspiring D-class hunter is plastering his body with luxury goods that he cannot buy even if he wakes up from death?

Anyone who sees it will realize that Natalia has her own attachment.

In other words, what happened today was ultimately a process of Natalia marking her territory to her male.

From her perspective, it cost a small amount of money.

***

“Anyway, I can’t understand the tastes of rich people.”

Meanwhile, as soon as Han Soo-hyun returned home, she placed the shopping bags haphazardly in her room.

He had already completely forgotten what happened at the department store during the day.

Instead, I rushed straight to the computer and turned it on with my toes.

Han Soo-hyun, who was waiting for the computer to boot, looked the happiest of the day.

‘I’ll definitely get a diamond today.’

With that promise, he turned on the game and leisurely left for the top of the canyon with only an axe in hand.

As expected, from the young boy’s perspective, playing games was more enjoyable than shopping at a fancy department store.

***

A-rank hunter Seo Jae-eun was summoned to deal with the highest-grade portal that had appeared in a long time.

She wandered into the convening location and first checked the lineup of the hunters who had been convened together.

‘Let’s see… Oh, there’s Natalia there too. Then, is Natalia the center of this subjugation?’

Even for the highest level portal, it is rare for more than one S-level hunter to be assigned to it.

In some cases, it increased as the number of other grade hunters increased.

As she looked around to see if there were any other familiar faces, her eyes stopped on a boy she had never seen before. It was a boy sitting next to Natalia.

“Hey, who is he?”

Seo Jae-eun immediately touches the side of her friend Kim Hye-jin with her elbow and asks.

“Where…, ah, him?”

Hyejin Kim recognized him at a glance and nodded.

“You wouldn’t know it if you looked at it. It’s a new toy for Natalia, our S-class hunter. Did you say your name is Han Su-hyun?”

“Really?”

In response to her friend’s answer, Seo Jae-eun’s eyes sparkled as she looked at Han Soo-hyun.

Since the two had known each other for quite some time, Kim Hye-jin immediately figured out what her friend was thinking and looked horrified.

“Hey…, don’t think about useless things.”

“Why? What am I?”

Kim Hye-jin sighs softly as she looks at Seo Jae-eun, who is smirking slyly.

“Can’t you see what he’s wearing? I heard that he was a cadet who came as an intern and his horsepower rating was only D. With what kind of money did he pay for such luxury items?”

“I guess you like clothes. There is also Kapoor, but why not Dresspoor?”

“That’s not it. Anyone can tell that it was Natalia who bought it.”

“Whatever that is.”

“Anyway? Isn’t this proof that you have a different attachment than before? If you ask me to touch you once, you will be soaked without even a mouse or a bird knowing.”

“Hmm….”

Seo Jae-eun just ignored Kim Hye-jin’s fuss. And then he internally savored his appetite.

‘I don’t know what. So it’s more fun.’

***

Seo Jae-eun’s role in this subjugation of the portal is to guard the exit.

The monsters that come out of the highest level portal cannot be compared to other portals, both qualitatively and quantitatively.

Therefore, even if you successfully deal with the boss monster, getting out of the portal is often an arduous journey due to the overwhelming volume.

The role created to overcome such a situation is the team that secures the exit route.

Seo Jae-eun took on the role of leader of the team that secured the escape route in this subjugation.

Also, Natalia’s intern named Han Soo-hyun, whom we saw earlier, was also included in the team securing the escape route.

No matter what, securing a retreat route was a much safer mission than hunting boss monsters.

Moreover, because all of the personnel summoned for the subjugation vaguely noticed the relationship between Natalia and Han Su-hyun, they even excluded all of them from dangerous missions.

‘I don’t know if I can be this comfortable.’

So, Han Su-hyun was sipping coffee with a sense of leisure even though he had now entered the inside of the highest level portal.

The one in the background was Natalia, one of the few S-class hunters in the country, so no one would point out her out loud.

Of course, that doesn’t mean it’s really safe.

From the moment I stepped into the portal, there was no place that was completely safe.

“Wow.”

Suddenly, a skeleton wearing a black robe and holding a scythe appeared in front of Han Su-hyeon. It was a Reaper skeleton with the ability to teleport.

‘It only appears in high-level portals, so I thought I’d only see it in textbooks and never see it in real life.’

While thinking about that, Han Soo-hyun threw away the paper cup containing the coffee and quickly pulled out his gun.

He immediately pulled the trigger, but simply dodged the bullet by teleporting again.

‘Fuck, where did it go?’

That moment when I quickly rolled my eyes and looked around, wondering where I had disappeared to.

Han Su-hyun felt a cool chill running up her spine from behind.

“Oh my….”

By the time I felt the cold, the blade of the scythe had already reached my uvula.

For a moment, I thought I was going to die like this.

But at the same time, the Reaper Skeleton’s head exploded with a loud roar.

“Are you okay?”

The Reaper skeleton falls apart with its smashed skull. At the same time, Seo Jae-eun, holding a grenade launcher, approached with a smile.

“Thank you.”

“Be careful. Here, safe zone has a relative meaning. In an absolute sense, there is no such thing as a safe zone.”

“I think so.”

“Aren’t you surprised?”

She says in a reassuringly soft voice and takes out the thermos she was carrying. I poured the still warm tea into the lid and held it out to Han Su-hyun.

“Would you like a drink?”

“Ah…, yes…, then I will drink it well.”

As Han Soo-hyun accepted the car, Seo Jae-eun naturally stood next to him.