“Sin Ah, watch out!”

“Ah, really!”

“Awoooooo!”

Its howl echoed through the space. Min Yu Shin hurriedly threw something. But its charging speed did not decrease. What should I do? Acutely feeling my lack of experience, I pulled out my staff and in my urgency tried anything.

[Skill used – Illusion of Enchantment (S)]

: Performs an illusion that enchants the target. Can be cast on multiple opponents.

※Does not work on those who are dead or lack intelligence.

[Target has weak intelligence. Effect is reduced by half.]

Roughly using the illusion that there was a huge rock in front, the giant wolf’s body tumbled over nothing. Perhaps due to the effect being halved, its ferocious movements soon returned.

Should I show it that there’s an even larger monster, an enormous being it can’t defeat…

Min Yu Shin, who had moved using shadow movement, blocked my path.

“I’ll handle this, you go evacuate the people first.”

“Will you be alright?”

“This much is no problem. I’ve built up a lot of stacks, just need to land a few more hits.”

“So it wasn’t an attack without damage…”

“What do you take me for? Anyway, please do as I asked.”

As a near S-rank, he should be able to handle it. I first went around striking the heads of people who had fainted standing up with my staff to wake them. Startled awake by the sudden pain, they looked around with still frightened faces.

“We’ll hold it off, so evacuate for now. Don’t yell.”

“Uh, um…”

“Don’t say your legs are too weak to move! You’re in the way!”

At my words about them being in the way, they made disgruntled expressions. What can I do, they are in the way. I used a skill to buff Min Yu Shin and remove debuffs. The skill I wasn’t sure would work on ordinary people fortunately did. Grabbing their weakened legs, people stood up and stumbled off somewhere.

“Not that direction! There are monsters there too!”

“Uh, uhhh…”

The people who had been unable to speak properly like monsters changed direction at my words. I should help with the evacuation to some extent. While also controlling the crowd, I chased away the murmuring people and quickly returned to where Min Yu Shin was.

There was the giant werewolf sprawled out and twitching, with Min Yu Shin standing on top of it.

Perhaps because his expression was hidden behind his glasses. He looked like a different person.

“These traces…”

Min Yu Shin muttered while looking at the fallen werewolf. The atmosphere he gave off was chilling.

I hesitated as I tried to approach him.

“Hm? You’re back already?”

“Yes…”

“I noticed your movements were strange earlier. We’ll need to train you.”

“…”

“I’m not sure if Shin Woo will allow it… There’s simulation training equipment in the basement. Let’s try some basic things first.”

“…Okay. But the monster…”

“Ah. This didn’t come out of a gate. Seems someone was illegally breeding and researching it…”

“I suppose that makes sense.”

“I left it alive for now to investigate the background… Fortunately it was weaker than a normal A-rank monster… They said the other side was struggling too, right? I’m not sure if they’ve dealt with it properly.”

“There are many injured, but it’s almost under control.”

“Your ability seems convenient, like navigation, when I see it sometimes. Is that how all S-ranks are? Our guild master also knows situations without looking.”

“Don’t use people as human navigators. Let’s wait for now. More importantly, perhaps…”

“Hm?”

“…It’s nothing.”

Min Yu Shin laughed as if my words were ridiculous. I couldn’t bring myself to ask him if he knew anything more.

[This is the timeline separator]

What Min Yu Shin caught alone, on the other side nearly 16 people barely managed to restrain. Even then they couldn’t take it down, only preventing further damage, until a hunter sent by the Association captured it.

The Association staff were surprised to learn there had been one more, then doubly surprised recognizing Min Yu Shin, and triply surprised seeing me. After hearing up to ‘So that person is the…’ I only felt tired. I wanted to go home and rest.

Sadly, there was no rest to be had. The Association hunter who came to support and caught the monster quickly left for another job, and the battered people insisted on having a team dinner. As I was thinking I wanted to skip out, the guy who came to support, Jae Min or whatever his name was, said something like this:

“You didn’t do anything and just played around, you’re not seriously going to skip the drinking, are you?”

True to his confident words about entering an A-rank gate, he was drunk on a hero complex after significantly helping restrain the monster. I could see the mindset of ‘How dare you who just played around skip when we worked so hard’.

The fact that Min Yu Shin was Min Yu Shin, that we belonged to Cheonrang, and that I was Cheon Shin Woo’s younger sister were kept secret, so it seemed no one knew except the Association people.

The Association hunters were sweating nervously, but the others who had been injured blocking the A-rank monster also looked displeased.

Eventually someone even said things like ‘That’s not how you should do hunter work. Keep this up and I’ll make sure you can’t even set foot in this industry. Your guild could be ruined because of you alone.’

It was so ridiculous it was funny. I was just about to say ‘You bark. I’m going home’ when Min Yu Shin put his hand on my shoulder.

“Hmm, please don’t view it too negatively. We had a lot going on on our side too… In exchange, can you let us leave early?”

“…You should have said so from the start.”

Seeing him wink at me, it seemed there was some reason. Though his expression was playful as always, the aura emanating from him was chilling.

Min Yu Shin was angry now. I briefly mourned for the person who had angered him.

At the team dinner I reluctantly attended, I still just wanted to go home. Though I’d never truly thought of the penthouse Cheon Shin Woo provided as my home, even that would have been better. I want to go home.

As I was picking at tasteless meat, Min Yu Shin whispered quietly so only I could hear.

“Sorry, there’s a bit I need to investigate.”

“…Did Cheon Shin Woo order it?”

“Not exactly, but you could say it’s partly correct.”

What’s that supposed to mean? I sighed softly and put down my chopsticks.

“Then should just Secretary stay and I go…”

“If our inexperienced Sin Ah gets kidnapped again, I’ll be dead.”

“Ugh, seriously.”

“We’ll need to train you for a while after this. There’s simulation equipment in the basement. Not sure if Shin Woo will allow it though.”

“…”

Many questions about this situation came to mind, but I decided to set them aside for now.

As I was picking at my food and Min Yu Shin was whispering to me while eyeing the people, amidst the heated atmosphere, drunk troublemakers started to appear.

“Still, today’s monster was nothing special. Seems like none of you have seen a proper A-rank, huh? If it had been a real one, you’d all have been wiped out in an instant!”

“Come on, even so…”

“Heh, what would low-ranked hunters know… Hic, you’d all be dead if it wasn’t for me.”

What a mess. The person saying that didn’t look particularly strong either. What is there to investigate among people like this? I glanced at Min Yu Shin.

Just as I was about to suggest we leave again.

“Hey, you two over there! The ones who did nothing and left early! You come to a drinking party and just sit there saying nothing… Hey, at least pour some drinks!”

Suddenly the arrow turned to me. I looked around just in case. His finger was pointing directly at me.

“…Me?”

“Heh, looks like you’re still young. A pretty girl like you could make easy money without doing this kind of work, you know?”

Loud laughter erupted along with his booming voice. Whether due to his slurred speech or the noisy surroundings, it was hard to make out what he was trying to say.

“Hm? If you just catch one top-tier hunter, you know. No need to suffer like this, with that face. Hm?”

Seems my ears weren’t mistaken after all. I was so dumbfounded I couldn’t say anything, and the guy who told me to pour drinks started pouring himself. The overflowing glass of alcohol was soon thrust in front of me. Gleaming eyes turned toward me.

“When an elder offers, huh? What are you doing not accepting right away?”

When something is too absurd, laughter comes out. Those around were laughing as if they’d heard an amusing joke. Silent pressure to hurry and accept was directed at me.

For a moment, Manager Kim came to mind. That bastard also did a lot of creative things at drinking parties… I took the drink he offered.

“Bottoms up, you know? Bottoms up. Chug it down, chug!”

Eyes fixed on me along with applause. I debated whether it would be better to get through this situation noisily or quietly.

Thwack.

Min Yu Shin’s actions were faster than my deliberation. The bottle in the drunk man’s hand split cleanly in half as the alcohol inside spilled onto the table. The dagger that cut the bottle was neatly stuck in the table.

“Hiccup.”

Silence fell over the previously noisy drinking party. It was a silence sharp as a well-honed blade. Three seconds of silence, then followed by commotion and screams.

“Wha-wha-wha-what! What is this…!”

“Haha. Hm? Why? Everyone seemed to be showing off their talents, so I thought I’d show mine too.”

“Talents?”

“I cut it cleanly, didn’t I?”

His eyes seemed to say ‘I can cut people just as cleanly.’ A near S-rank isn’t called that for nothing. The commotion quickly settled into silence. It was because the pressure emanating from Min Yu Shin stifled everyone’s breath.

“Guh, ugh…!”

“I had my suspicions, but only small fry were left… What a waste of time.”

“Gurk, guuurk…”

Some looked at him with sobered faces, others with terrified expressions. I sighed briefly, recalling the cathartic scenes I often read in novels.

“That’s enough. There’s nothing good that will come from causing a disturbance.”

“Sin Ah, you know what? If you kill all the witnesses too, it becomes assassination.”

“…That’s a joke, right?”

“Hmm, is it?”

I really shouldn’t have come to this kind of gathering from the start. Yet Min Yu Shin, who had dragged me here, just smiled as if he didn’t care how the news would report this tomorrow.

“You don’t need to use that kind of method.”