A story about her mother that Suji had never heard before.

Suji listened blankly, forgetting to even blink her eyes.

“We were tackling the 30th floor at that time. As you know, Suji, even though the difficulty of the tower seems to increase uniformly as you go up to higher floors, there are particularly hard floors and easy floors depending on the attributes of the team members. The 30th floor was an especially difficult one for us.”

Suji knew that too.

The pair of Knight and Phenaios struggled against enemies with strong physical shields, and the boss monster on the 30th floor was exactly that case.

No one answered, but Seunghwan opened his mouth again as if being pushed.

“Our team was so big back then, so we were divided into several groups. Yeonju was in a different group. So I was the group leader along with Phenaios.”

“If I had been there too…”

At Yeonju’s words, Seunghwan silently looked down at his clasped hands and continued.

“Let’s stop with the what-ifs. It’s time to move on.”

“…Yeah.”

“We had no information about the Rift. Even overseas, the Rift appeared later than for us. There was no data. So suddenly, a black scythe tore through that floor, and everyone panicked.”

Seunghwan lightly licked his dry lips but couldn’t easily say the next words.

He glanced sideways at Suji, who was quietly waiting for the next words, placed his hands on the table, and barely managed to speak again.

“The boss monster had already passed the third phase and collapsed. We were not fully reorganized. Everyone had no strength left.”

“Of all moments…”

“Phenaios took the lead and blocked that damn Reaper, and I tried to get people to escape. But before I could even use my hands, many people were already being dragged to the other side of the Rift.”

As if recalling that moment, Seunghwan’s voice was thickly laced with anger and guilt.

Yeonju reached out and covered his trembling hand, but he continued to speak in an unabated tone.

“Phenaios didn’t hesitate at all. While crossing over to that pitch-black space beyond the Rift, she cut off all the invisible tentacles. She returned all the people who were being dragged back to the 30th floor. And as if marking its prey in advance, the Reaper followed Phenaios, and the Rift closed in an instant. That was the end. I did nothing.”

“…Don’t say that. You…”

“No. I couldn’t even move my feet. The star-shaped thing in the Reaper’s eyes… I don’t know. Whether it’s a debuff or a curse. These are all excuses. The moment I saw that damn thing, I couldn’t move. Out of fear. Like a fucking coward.”

From the tone of his scathing self-criticism, it was clear how much he had been blaming himself for that moment until now.

She had only heard stories about Phenaios being dragged away in a heroic way, but this was the first time hearing it from Seunghwan like this.

She thought she had sorted out her feelings about her mother a lot, but hearing a story like this couldn’t leave her feeling at ease.

Her heart was beating fast, and her stomach ached.

Still, Suji neither defended nor criticized Seunghwan and quietly waited for him to continue.

There must be a reason why he brought up this story.

“…That’s when I saw the message from the ‘Great Beings’.”

“Ah…”

Suji let out a small gasp.

She didn’t expect the name of the ‘Great Beings’ to come up at this moment.

Suji glanced down at her ring.

How wicked of them to latch onto the moment when humans hit rock bottom in despair.

But for her, who already knew too well how the ‘Great Beings’ lived only for their own amusement, it wasn’t surprising.

“What happened?”

“…They said I completed the hidden quest ‘Rift Encounter’ and gave me a reward.”

She understood why he never gave any answer when she asked about the ‘Great Beings’ before.

Really terrible.

It may seem like a coincidence, an objective working of the system, but now Suji knew that was not the case.

Seunghwan opened the brass locket he had placed on the table.

As the lid of the locket made a clicking sound and drew a semicircle, the photo inside was revealed.

There, a woman who looked exactly like Suji, with slightly lighter violet long hair than Suji’s, was smiling at the camera.

Suji stared at the locket for a long time.

The mother as a hunter, whom even her father chose not to remember, looked really bright and happy.

“What was the item you received then?”

“A bow that nullifies the target’s physical shield for a set time. Of course, there are side effects, but it’s not bad, right?”

Suji knew how many achievements Seunghwan had made when he had the name ‘Knight’. Not just anyone could become the head of the Gate Stabilization Department.

It’s a good item even if she heard it now, and if he had gotten such a thing back then when the situation was even more dire, he could have shown great feats.

If not himself, he could have passed it on to someone else.

But even though such a great hunter got such an amazing item, she had never heard any stories related to that.

Then the conclusion was obvious.

“…It was bound, wasn’t it?”

“Yes.”

A bound item meant it could only be used by the owner who received it.

An item that only Seunghwan himself could use, not anyone else, and they gave it to him at the very moment he was breaking down after losing a colleague.

Those ‘Great Beings’…

If there are demons, that must be their other name.

Suji closed the locket with a click.

The locket, engraved with a beautiful pattern, had a shiny, well-worn surface. She could tell without asking how preciously Seunghwan had been keeping it.

She couldn’t resent him. Even though she herself had a pitiful fate, losing her mother at a young age, at least Suji’s memories of her mother were not all intact.

But how about Seunghwan, who had been working together with her mother as colleagues for a long time?

She heard the two of them often formed a pair.

They must have been like Elaine and herself now.

The sense of loss must be beyond words.

“It would have been nice if uncle had been my father.”

“…What are you suddenly talking about?”

Seunghwan showed a rare look of embarrassment on his always solemn-looking face.

“It was absolutely not that kind of relationship. She was an amazing hunter that I couldn’t even dare to look up to.”

Suji knew better what it was like to be colleagues.

But she was glad he said that.

She was so happy that he spoke that way about her mother, whom her father chose to forget.

Really.

Her mother was a great person, but she thought she had bad taste in men.

Leaving behind this man who hasn’t even married yet and carries her mother’s locket in his heart every day… How could she have chosen someone like her father?

Suji stared at the locket for a long time before returning it to Seunghwan.

She hoped Seunghwan would stop thinking about her mother and live his own life now, but it wasn’t her place to say anything about that.

“Thank you for telling me the story. I think I understand the situation better now, and the intentions of the ‘Great Beings’.”

“…I should have told you earlier. I’m sorry.”

Suji shook her head.

“No, it’s okay. I wasn’t unhappy because I had uncle and auntie, and mom would be satisfied with that too.”

“…Right. Anyway, I was really thinking of returning to the field. Administratively, there is too little support, and many related policies are far removed from the reality on the ground, so I took this position. But I’ve been here for too long.”

Yeonju let out a deep sigh as if she had no choice and tapped Seunghwan’s shoulder.

“If you say you want to do it, I won’t stop you. But we’ve gotten too old.”

“I know that.”

“First, go to the training ground and roll around a bit. Let’s not rush out and die right away.”

Seunghwan nodded with a bitter smile.

“I’d be satisfied if we could just respond to emergency situations like Waves.”

Suji sighed inwardly, knowing that Seunghwan and Yeonju were thinking of returning to the field.

In a situation where they were in dire straits, anyone lending a hand would be helpful. Moreover, if the team members who once stood at the forefront of Korea’s ‘Tower of Wisdom’ rejoined, it would be the best.

So no matter how worried she was, she couldn’t stop them.

“I’ll assign you a different dedicated manager. I won’t have time to support you if I go out into the field.”

Even in the midst of this, Yeonju was worrying about Suji.

“Okay, auntie.”

Suji nodded calmly.

“But still, if you have any issues to discuss with me, contact me anytime.”

“Auntie, you too, if you have any difficulties when you go out into the field, contact me.”

As Suji clenched her fist and held it out, Seunghwan and Yeonju bumped their fists against it.

The conversation had progressed in a completely different direction than she had thought, and she felt sorry for calling the retired veterans back to the field, but it certainly made her feel reassured.

“Ah, and what about the equipment I requested?”

“You can receive that from the Hunter Support Office on the 9th floor, but I’ll find it and give it to you.”

“No, it’s okay. I’ll go. You’ll suddenly be busy anyway.”

“There are also matters related to the award. Then let’s go together.”

“Okay.”

Suji bowed politely to Seunghwan and left the meeting room.

Standing in front of the elevator, watching the changing numbers, she suddenly turned around.

Through the gaps between the alternating translucent and transparent glass arranged like a lattice, she saw Seunghwan with his hands clasped as if praying and his forehead against them.