When Suji didn’t respond, her father quickly continued.

“Come on, you know how difficult the Hunter tutorial is, right? Your sister is struggling with parts of the tutorial and wants to enroll in an academy, but it’s so expensive… Could you help out a little? She’s not a stranger, she’s your sister.”

It must be her stepmother’s doing.

She didn’t need to see it to know the answer.

‘…But she is a stranger. What relation is she to me? She’s just someone my stepmother brought along. We don’t share a drop of blood.’

Suji was annoyed not only by her greedy stepmother who shamelessly eyed the family’s money, but also by her sister. Her sister always treated Suji like she was invisible. She had never properly returned a greeting.

Her inner feelings twisted.

Normally, she would have just given the money, considering it pocket change.

But now, for some reason, the posts she had seen kept swirling in her mind.

Those posts that treated her like a fool while freeloading off her efforts. Those posts that stung her heart so much that she couldn’t even see the numerous praises and compliments.

“So?”

“Could you lend about 300 gold? You seem to have some to spare.”

300 gold.

It was certainly a small amount for Suji, but generally, when hunters start their work, they typically earn 30 to 50 gold per month in the beginning.

For the hunter Seo Suji that her family knew, this was clearly a large sum.

Moreover, it wouldn’t be just borrowing. If they had any intention of paying it back, they would have returned the money they had borrowed before.

They never paid back, but the amount they kept asking for kept increasing.

She had quietly dedicated herself to conquering the Tower, driven by a desire to avenge her mother, an S-rank hunter who lost her life in the Tower while striving to end the A.W. era. She hadn’t told others about this because it seemed a bit much… but at times like this, she felt she had made the right decision by keeping quiet.

“No.”

At Suji’s first refusal, her father seemed much more surprised than expected, his eyes widening like a rabbit’s.

“…Huh? What did you say?”

“I said no.”

As Suji firmly stated, this time her stepmother, who had appeared behind her father at some point, frowned deeply and said.

“How can you be like this? Do you know how much money is spent on you eating and sleeping in this house? And you’re being stingy about this?”

Suji stared blankly at her stepmother.

This house, yes, she was living here as a freeloader.

But the money that bought this house? It was entirely money that Suji’s mother had earned from her hunter work.

Her father was a man with a decent face but completely lacking in ability. All he had was this house, which he received as alimony during the divorce.

Hearing her stepmother talk as if Suji was freeloading in a house that belonged to her, her blood pressure started to rise.

Moreover, the days Suji had actually eaten and slept here as a “freeloader” could be counted on one hand.

She had started her hunter activities much earlier than others, right after graduating from the academy. The total days she spent at home in a year would barely reach 30.

After her mother’s death, Suji lived like a shut-in for a year before gritting her teeth and going to the academy.

From the entrance exam, she outperformed everyone else, and thanks to that, she received a scholarship and never needed support from her family.

Once her eyes were opened, she realized there were so many painful issues stacked up that she couldn’t understand how she had lived so naively until now.

“I didn’t want to say this, but sister doesn’t have the talent. It would be better not to waste money. And why spend so much money on something that’s not even a good thing?”

“…What did you just say?”

“I’m leaving.”

“…What?”

“I said I’m leaving. I didn’t know I was using up so much money.”

Her stepmother touched her forehead as if she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“Oh my, do you think leaving is that easy? What are you doing? You should know how to scold her properly when she’s being disrespectful.”

Her stepmother seemed to think Suji was throwing a tantrum to change her father’s mind.

But her father would know.

What kind of person Seo Suji was.

That she never takes back her words.

“…Suji. This isn’t why I brought this up. Listen to me.”

Listen to him?

Actually, the most annoying person in this house was her father.

Why can’t the people her mother protected with so much love show any gratitude?

“I’m sorry I couldn’t clean up the pizza. Anyway, I hardly have any belongings in this house, so you can dispose of the rest as you see fit.”

“Suji.”

“If you need the money I’ve used, feel free to bill me. And I’ll manage my share of the inheritance from now on. I think that’s all you need to know.”

“…Suji.”

“If things don’t go smoothly, you can use a lawyer. But I think it would look better if you didn’t go that far. Well then, goodbye.”

[This is the timeline separator]

For all the stubbornness she had shown, leaving the house wasn’t that difficult.

All this time, her daily life and world as Daphne had been in dungeons and the Tower, and all her assets were stored in her inventory.

The only things she owned for her current life were a few pieces of clothing, some favorite comic books, a laptop, and her mother’s heirloom ring and necklace.

Her possessions were so few that even if she packed all her worldly belongings, they all fit into one carrier with room to spare.

She could see her father and sister who had followed her to the door, but Suji didn’t bother to say any more farewells. It’s not like she would never see them again.

However, her sister’s reaction was a bit unexpected.

Her sister stared at her toes for a long time, then muttered in a bitter voice.

“My mom is a bit shameless… I’m sorry. I didn’t know it would come to this…”

She never expected her sister, with whom she had barely exchanged words, to apologize like this.

Suji thought her past self had been quite foolish. It felt pointless that she had meekly accepted everything for the sake of family.

If she hadn’t acted this way, she wouldn’t have had to hear this apology.

It was truly foolish.

[This is the timeline separator]

Once she was quite far from the house, Suji overlaid Daphne’s appearance.

Her hair and eyes instantly turned purple.

Having instantly transformed from Suji to Daphne, she whispered softly into the air.

“Check assets.”

[329,999,036,000G]

An enormous number unfolded before her eyes.

But that wasn’t all of Suji’s assets.

Messages continued to appear.

[Tower 50th Floor Save Zone Lodging Owned

Civil Servant Exclusive Lodging Area E, SSS-rank Hunter Exclusive Private House Owned

8 Residential Spaces Owned in Seoul Permanent Gates

2 in Gyeonggi-do Gates, 1 in Gangwon-do Gates, 1 in Chungcheongbuk-do, 1 in Chungcheongnam-do, 1 in Jeollabuk-do, 1 in Jeollanam-do, 1 in Gyeongsangbuk-do, 1 in Gyeongsangnam-do, 2 in Jeju Special Self-Governing Province Gates Residential Spaces Owned

Other item assets available for viewing.

Would you like to view?]

The window flickering before her eyes listed assets so enormous that anyone would be slack-jawed.

If her family had known even a single line of this, her stepmother wouldn’t have asked for such a small amount. In a way, it was fortunate.

Anyway, Suji wasn’t greedy about her wealth, and she only earned money without having time to spend it. When you’re on the frontlines of the Tower, thinking you might die any day, the value of money seems trivial.

Still, now that she was trying to rest, it seemed better to have money than not.

And it was good to have many residential spaces too.

Suji shrugged her shoulders.

Until now, she had decided to stay close to her only blood relative, but now that she had left home, she had many places to go.

“Skip the item check. But were there really that many of my residential spaces in Seoul?”

[In Seoul, 5 residential spaces given as rewards for the first Tower conquest, 1 residential space secured as a reward for the first main dungeon clear, and 2 directly purchased residential spaces are registered.]

Looking at it this way, her memories seemed to come back.

Not all dungeons are like hell.

Some dungeons, while offering relatively less to gain, were quite beautiful. She remembered buying a residential space, surprised by the beautiful scenery where small mobs resembling rabbits or deer frolicked about.

Well… even though all those mobs were comparable to S-rank…

‘Residential spaces’ were expensive to purchase, but the benefits weren’t bad. Once you enter, the owner and guests invited by the owner can’t be attacked while inside and receive a very small recovery buff.

After a moment of contemplation, Suji narrowed down a few candidates.

‘First, exclude the civil servant exclusive lodging.’

She didn’t want her location to be known.

‘Also exclude places with many people. And places too close to home, in case Dad comes looking. Ah, and places where many civil servants pass by.’

She soon picked out the optimal place to stay among her owned residential spaces.

[This is the timeline separator]

Suji, with her appearance changed to Daphne, looked at the sudden pile of deliveries.

A ray-shaped magical beast had just lowered a load of packages it had been carrying on its black back in front of her all at once.

Even at dungeon entrances, or gates, which are difficult for ordinary people to access, hunters who had acquired tamer characteristics would use the magical beasts they had tamed to make deliveries for a fee.

It was an enormous cost compared to regular delivery, but Suji didn’t care about such things.

The gigantic ray-shaped magical beast that seemed large enough to cover the sky hovered in the air, staring at her intently, then settled down, pressing its tail to the ground as if showing affection.

“…Ah. Is this one I caught?”

As if it understood her words, the ray wagged its tail and leaned its head towards Suji’s hand, seeming to savor her touch.