SSS-Class Hunter Goes On Vacation - Chapter 23

Despite it being quite late, the phone rang immediately.

“Hello?”

– Hey. What’s this all about suddenly?

Suji giggled with delight at the bewilderment in Yeonju’s voice.

These days, even she thought she was laughing a lot. Laughter would burst out at the slightest provocation.

Until just now, she didn’t think she was in the mood to laugh, but after deciding to look at the problem on her shoulders from a slightly different angle, her heart felt lighter.

– ……Why are you laughing? And what do you mean by a game? I thought you……

“I know you were worried.”

– ……Suji.

“But, I’m just going to leave it to luck.”

– ……What?

“Luck? No, more like passion…… Anyway. I’ll tell you the details tomorrow, but quickly. Don’t you have any suitable games? I’m tired of console games now, so something else. Preferably something that doesn’t rely too much on physical abilities. It should be something that S-class, SSS-class, and AAA-class can all play together.”

– ……A game?

Yeonju trailed off as if unable to follow the current flow of conversation, but soon seemed to remember her role as a dedicated manager and gathered her thoughts.

Then she racked her brain to recall the items her assigned hunter might need.

After a moment of silence, Yeonju recalled the items piled up in the storage room at the end of her office.

– Come to think of it, there’s quite a lot that your fans sent. What do you call it…… that healing……?

“Potion? Or vampiric trait?”

– No, not that kind of healing. How should I put this. You know, mental healing. Drawing alone, writing poetry, reading…… Like how you’re resting now, healing. Your fans sent a lot of things for you to heal.

At the mention of fans, Suji hesitated for a moment.

Just hearing that word made her feelings complicated.

She had heard that she had fans.

But strangely, even though there were more people praising or defending her on the hunter forums, somehow only the negative comments stuck in her mind.

Even the word ‘fan’ didn’t always sound entirely pleasant.

Perhaps that’s why, even though she knew her fans kept sending things, she had never once received and opened them.

She had always just told them to hold off or return everything, and had forgotten about it since then.

She was about to say never mind.

Then she suddenly remembered the voice shouting that they were her fan, which she had encountered a few days ago when she went to appraise stones.

It had a different resonance from what she saw on online forums.

‘……Should I receive them?’

“Could you send them now?”

– Of course. I’ll contact the tamer right away.

“Thank you.”

– Anything else you need?

“……That fan cafe. Can I get the address?”

As soon as she finished speaking, her device rang and the address popped up.

Suji smiled, said goodbye, and hung up.

The thought of doing something she hadn’t done before made her feel a bit excited.

She only hoped that suitable items for playing games would arrive.

[Ding dong. The tamer delivery service has arrived at the requested coordinates.]

However, when Suji received the items, she was at a loss for words.

On top of the stingray that had come here for tamer delivery service every time, an enormous tower was stacked.

‘……What is all this?’

Since she hadn’t specified exactly what gifts to send, she had anticipated that quite a lot of items might come.

But this was almost equal to the amount she had requested from Yeonju when she started living in her new house and needed essentials.

Suji watched as the giant floating stingray descended to the ground, then leapt up and stood on top of it.

On the huge boxes, as tall as Suji herself and almost the same length and width, neat labels were attached.

‘Love you Daphne_Handwritten Letter Collection’, ‘Absolutely Protect Daphne’s Health’, ‘Pat Pat, Healing Items’, ‘Gate-Admissible Preserved Food Collection_Preserved Food Can Be Delicious Too’, ‘Only the Latest for Our Daphne_Electronic Device Collection’, ‘Open When You’re Having a Hard Time_Love You Daphne_Message Book’.

Suji stared blankly at those messages that were undoubtedly handwritten by someone, then slowly reached out to touch each label one by one.

It’s strange.

They were just ordinary kraft paper labels that could be bought anywhere, but they seemed to radiate warmth.

Suji absently read the words ‘Open When You’re Having a Hard Time_Love You Daphne_Message Book’ and then opened the huge lid with one hand.

The enormous box, which could probably fit about ten Sujis standing side by side, was filled to the brim with message books stacked horizontally.

She couldn’t explain the emotion she felt seeing that.

Touched?

Holding onto that indescribable, heartwarming feeling, Suji picked up one of the message books from the very top.

24XX. March Collection

When she opened the first page, several high-quality printed landscape photos were lined up.

The first one was full of flowers, the second had a huge willow tree hanging over a riverbank, and the third photo was filled with silver grass.

And below it was written, ‘The world is this beautiful because you, Daphne, exist. Love you. Let’s be happy.’

Suji closed it again, put it back in the box, and stared blankly at the luggage.

It was so strange that so many people thought of her like that and cared for her in places she didn’t know about.

It wasn’t odd that they existed, but there was a different feeling between vaguely knowing of their existence and directly encountering such sincerity in front of her eyes.

It felt like her hardened heart was softening.

Although she couldn’t fully comprehend all those feelings, she was grateful.

Before, she thought there wouldn’t be much meaning in gifts from people whose faces she didn’t even know.

But it was much more moving than she expected.

However, she also felt burdened on the other hand.

Although her climbing the tower was beneficial for the entire country, she was ultimately pursuing her own goals.

There was a high chance she would cease her activities once she achieved that purpose.

Moreover, it didn’t feel right to receive things like this when she couldn’t personally give anything back to the fans.

Suji looked at the things the fans had sent with mixed feelings, deciding to open the letters calmly bit by bit, and first searched through the other boxes to find what she wanted.

[This is the timeline separator]

The next day, early in the morning when the luminous body was just rising in the sky. Suji gathered her three team members.

The team members, who didn’t need much sleep, assembled looking fresh despite the early morning call.

Above all, Suji would often send emails to gather everyone like this when a big decision was made.

They must have all anticipated it.

Elaine, Pis, and Saint gathered near the four tables Suji had placed on the beach, showing signs of slight tension.

“It seems you’ve been pondering for a long time, you should rest after you finish speaking.”

“Since we’ve already become distant, are we sitting at separate tables? To become truly estranged?”

“I, Saint! Will follow the team leader’s opinion!”

Suji smiled brightly as she watched Elaine, Pis, and Saint chattering in turn.

Whether it was because of the sea breeze or seeing her precious team members, she felt quite good.

Or maybe it was because she was looking forward to what expressions they would make.

“I don’t think it’s a matter for me to decide.”

“What? If the team leader doesn’t decide, who will?”

“Rather than that, I think everyone’s opinion is correct. And I also thought it’s not right for me to make all important decisions alone. So I prepared this.”

“Prepared……”

Pis made a face that showed he didn’t understand what she meant, to which Suji smiled meaningfully as if enjoying it.

Suji stretched out her hand in front of them, opened her inventory, and placed an item on each table. They were all the same.

“The one who gets the most votes will have their opinion carried out. Welcome to ‘Hobby Life 101’.”

What she had done had nothing to do with the number ‘101’, and there were no variety shows left in this era, but Suji shamelessly paid homage to the title of a program that was popular several centuries ago.

An hour later, a strange authentication post appeared on Suji’s fan cafe, Dryad.

[Title: (Admin Verified (Notice)) Announcement from the Gate Stabilization Department.

Hello, this is Kim Yeonju, the dedicated manager of hunter Daphne from the Crisis Management Support and Gate Stabilization Department.

First, I’d like to inform you that this post was written at the request of hunter Daphne.

(Attached photo 1)

(Attached photo 2)

(Attached photo 3)

(Attached photo 4)

These four pictures are all works created using ‘DIY Masterpiece Painting’, one of the items sent to hunter Daphne from her fan cafe ‘Dryad’.

This ‘DIY Masterpiece Painting’ was colored by each of the four members of Team Daphne, all completed within a set time using identical materials.

We would appreciate it if the members of the fan cafe ‘Dryad’ could vote for the picture you think is most perfectly colored among these.

The owner of each picture will be revealed after the voting is completed.

P.S.:

Hunter Daphne’s comments are also included.]