At that moment, I recalled a story elder sister Se Jin once told me.

When I asked why she considered ‘justice’ so important, this is what she said.

‘Our father was a great police officer, you know? So I wanted to make the world just like him too.’

‘Even though the world has become like this and I couldn’t become a police officer, I should still do what I can. Don’t you think?’

I realized what Kang Hyuk meant by busy and dangerous work.

The person elder sister wanted to resemble was that man. The justice that stemmed from Kang Hyuk was passed on to Kang Se Jin, and then again to me and Kang Hyuk respectively.

The choice I was about to make. However, it was not something to be immersed in emotion. I recalled why I wanted to find the people who tried to kill Yi Ryeo Hyun.

In any case, the fact that I would take care of those bastards wouldn’t change, but if I forgot the reason, I would lose my way.

Why did I try to find those people, why did I want to return their pain to them. …Why was I angry.

I must not forget that reason, that meaning.

“…Thank you for telling me.”

I bowed my head to Kang Hyuk in gratitude. Kang Hyuk left after saying, ‘Sure.’

Suddenly, it struck me like lightning that he hadn’t lit his cigarette once while talking to me.

I stood there for a while, lost in thought.

Afterwards, I went back into the hall where the funeral was in full swing to find Min Yu Shin. It still seemed more like a gathering of high-ranking officials wearing the mask of a funeral than an actual funeral.

“I would like to ask for your strength as well.”

The person claiming to be Yi Ryeo Hyun’s elder sister was still continuing something resembling a speech. Does she plan to do this all day?

As I was looking around in a place where no one was talking to me, Latte soon flew to me. My palm-sized cat quickly sat on my shoulder and rubbed its forehead against my cheek affectionately.

−Meow.

“Did you go somewhere?”

−Meong!

It was cute how it deliberately made only cat sounds despite knowing human language. Instead of asking Latte outright if it had obtained any information, I scratched its chin with my finger for a moment.

My thoughts were organized. The reason I was looking for the people who caused Yi Ryeo Hyun’s death was because they had driven tens of thousands of people to their deaths and needlessly killed an innocent person. Although I couldn’t say there was no personal revenge at all… I had to find them no matter what, if only to prevent such things from happening again.

‘World Boss and Demon King, and destruction…’

Isn’t it ridiculous to have petty power struggles when a terrible disaster is right in front of us?

It’s barely enough to join forces to defeat the calamity, yet they point swords at each other and approach self-destruction.

I don’t remember the day of the first Break. I don’t know the miserable state of humans at that time. I only know that it took years to barely restore civilization to this extent.

Humanity experienced what could truly be called extinction. Half of the world’s population died, and all the materials left by great scholars were lost.

Even if we restored collapsed buildings and regained our lives and routines, we couldn’t find what was lost. Once lost, it was hard to recover. In lands where monsters targeted humans and only death lurked, humans also harmed other humans, resulting in lands that were damaged beyond recovery.

‘In the midst of all that.’

As if forgetting the past, how can it not be petty to pursue momentary power and gain while turning a blind eye to what happened just 16 years ago?

“…”

I slowly looked at the people in the hall. A-rank Hunters, political figures, businessmen, guild masters running guilds. Everyone gathered here was extraordinary in their own way. They were all busy exchanging greetings with each other, and while they pretended to mourn Baek Ya’s death, they weren’t truly saddened.

If even those who call themselves family are like this, how much would these strangers grieve?

“Latte.”

−Meoong?

“What did those people say?”

−Meooong…

When I whispered quietly enough for only Latte to hear, my small cat soon flew over and placed its paw on my forehead.

At that moment, the memories of what Latte had seen and heard flowed into me. Most of it was nonsense on par with claims that Jeok Cheon and Baek Jang Mi had conspired to kill Baek Ya, but there was also a lot of meaningful information among it.

No, the problem was that there was too much. I frowned, observing the sense of incongruity around me, and let out a small sigh.

Why did I only realize this now? As I sighed, the small cat excitedly circled around. I scratched under Latte’s chin with my finger.

“Good job.”

When I praised it, Latte rubbed its forehead against my cheek again.

Now, what should I do? As I was carefully looking around at the people again, someone approached me just then.

“Oh my, who do we have here.”

It was someone I didn’t know. More precisely, it should have been someone who didn’t know me, even if I knew them.

“I heard the vice guild master of Cheon Rang came, but I’m sorry I couldn’t properly attend to you. I should have paid attention, but I didn’t.”

A woman with a height over 170cm, probably wearing heels, covered her mouth and laughed. I looked at the person who called herself ‘Yi Ryeo Hyun’s elder sister’.

“…Hello.”

“Haha, I didn’t properly introduce myself. Nice to meet you. I’m Yi Jin Ha, who’s expected to become the new master of Am Wol soon.”

From her eyes to her tone when greeting me, she was unpleasant. It wasn’t just that I found her unpleasant. She was looking down on me.

“But… is it okay for you to be alone in a place like this? I heard the vice guild master of Cheon Rang is B-rank…”

There were four more people around her, acting like bodyguards. One of them was the person introduced as Yi Ryeo Hyun’s elder brother, and the rest were executives of Am Wol.

It was a situation where I shouldn’t laugh, but for some reason, I felt like laughing. It was laughter born from absurdity.

Isn’t that right? The person who’s going to be the new guild master of Am Wol, surrounded by people as if commanding subordinates, greets me, the vice guild master of Cheon Rang. From afar, it might look like harassment. Well, it’s not much different in reality.

The eyes of everyone gathered here were focused on me. It was impossible not to notice that they were paying attention to me, even while pretending to have conversations.

It was strange from the beginning. Even if in name only, I am the vice guild master of Cheon Rang, and that Cheon Shin Woo’s younger sister. On my own, I’m just an ordinary B-rank Hunter, neither exceptionally outstanding nor lagging behind, but the modifiers describing me before that were impressive.

Yet, the situation itself where they only cared about Min Yu Shin and not me was quite strange.

‘…They intended to ignore me from the start.’

Officially, Am Wol and Cheon Rang are not on good terms. Apart from Yi Ryeo Hyun personally and the faction following him, Am Wol and Cheon Rang clashed at every turn and saw each other as thorns in their sides.

Most of the people gathered here came to build connections with Am Wol. Therefore, they intentionally ignored me, who belongs to Cheon Rang.

Individually, as a Hunter who just awakened and is only B-rank, they probably thought there was no need to pay attention to me.

Either ignore, or mock.

“It’s fine. More importantly, I heard Jin Ha… you recently became A-rank. It seems you’re getting a lot of help from many people. I heard it’s easy to destroy surrounding objects if your control stat is low, is that why?”

When I smiled and extended my hand, Jin Ha’s eyes trembled slightly. I added that I envied her for awakening at a high rank and smiled harmlessly. Three of the people next to her stared at me blankly.

“Haha, I’m sorry. As you said, it’s difficult to control my strength, so I’m afraid of making a mistake if I shake hands.”

Jin Ha deliberately didn’t take my hand. Is she trying to embarrass me? I shrugged lightly and smiled.

−This is unpleasant, meow.

Latte, hiding behind my shoulder, grumbled. Yeah, yeah. I’m upset too. But don’t cause a disturbance in such a public place. When I muttered inwardly, Latte replied with a ‘meoong’.

I don’t know who this cat takes after to have such a sensitive personality.

More than that, I wonder if it’s okay since my makeup must have worn off a lot from crying earlier. But I had no intention of hiding the fact that I was Cheon Shin Woo’s younger sister from now on, so I put on a confident expression.

“More importantly, is it really okay for you to be here alone? I’m worried that if something happens to the vice guild master of Cheon Rang, it might cause trouble for our side.”

“I don’t think Am Wol’s security is that vulnerable. After all, it’s one of the top 4 guilds in South Korea.”

Yeah, if something happens to me, it’s definitely your fault. When I smiled more brightly, Jin Ha’s expression crumpled a bit. It was noticeable that she was biting the inside of her cheek. I put on an even brighter smile.

“And I didn’t come alone, so there’s no need to worry.”

To begin with, the chances of something happening to me were low. Unless it was someone blinded by revenge against Cheon Shin Woo, who would dare to attack me?

Even if someone did attack, it wouldn’t be a problem. No, rather, I could subdue them and extract information, so from my perspective, I would be grateful if they did.

However, Jin Ha kept trying to mock me until the end.

“…But it must be hard to be the vice guild master of such a large guild as a B-rank.”

“Still, our vice guild master is very capable. She even stopped a siege war alone. Impressive, right?”

Her mockery was thwarted by Min Yu Shin’s sudden interruption.

Min Yu Shin naturally put his arm around my shoulder and winked. I don’t know where he had been or what he had been doing, but his timing was good. I smiled broadly.

“You don’t need to worry about me. I hope Am Wol’s future endeavors go smoothly.”

…Although I’m not sure if that’s really possible.

“Thank you for your concern?”

Jin Ha maintained her unpleasant attitude until the end. It seemed there was nothing more to gain from further conversation, so I quickly left that space, taking Min Yu Shin with me.

I heard voices calling us from behind, but… I ignored them because I didn’t feel they were worth paying attention to.

I spoke in a low voice, audible only to Min Yu Shin, who maintained a smiling face throughout.

“Secretary.”

“Yes, what is it?”

“The people I pointed out, can you possibly take care of them?”

Min Yu Shin’s expression hardened. He touched his chin with a surprised look, as if he hadn’t expected me to say such a thing.