<Episode 15>
In this lively street, he stood there with a chilly expression and indifferent eyes that didn’t fit the atmosphere at all, quietly staring at me.
I smiled brightly, happy to see him again after so long, but he suddenly turned his head away.
“I heard you had company. It was you?”
Wait, what’s his problem now?
Hunter Lee Hyunwoo looked displeased, as if he didn’t like that I came along. Well, to be exact, his expression looked the same as usual, but that was how it felt to me.
“Ahaha… Leader! Why are you acting like this all of a sudden? I told you beforehand!”
Hunter Kang Min awkwardly pulled me closer, but it only made things worse. Lee Hyunwoo’s expression visibly stiffened as he looked back and forth between Kang Min and me.
“Ahaha… seriously, what’s gotten into him?”
Thanks to Hunter Lee Hyunwoo suddenly clamming up, the warm atmosphere shattered instantly.
I muttered awkwardly.
“I kind of barged in unexpectedly….”
“Come on, I’m the one who asked you to come with us. Don’t worry about it too much, okay?”
I felt bad for Hunter Kang Min, who looked completely caught in the middle. He probably just half-listened and casually agreed, but after actually seeing me, his mood must have soured. He really was a strange person.
To lighten the mood, I greeted the person standing next to Kang Min Hunter.
“Hello, this is our first time meeting. You’re Hunter Suhyeon, right?”
“Ah, hello….”
The girl wearing round glasses and wrapped tightly in a scarf was Hunter Lee Suhyeon from Team 1.
She was only 17 and balanced school life with her role as a hunter. Maybe because she was shy, she peeked out from behind Kang Min Hunter and gave a small nod in greeting.
“My name is Jung Haneul. I run the bungeoppang shop in front of the Management Bureau.”
“I know. But, unnie….”
Hunter Suhyeon fidgeted with her hands awkwardly while glancing at me.
Did she want to say something?
“The talking cat?”
“Huh? The talking cat?”
“Kang Min oppa said there’s a talking cat….”
Ah, she meant our Hanyang.
I had asked Hanyang if he wanted to come along today, but he said he preferred staying home and planned to lie in bed.
Well, who wouldn’t? The heater was warm, snacks of every kind were laid out, and there was plenty of cat food….
“If you come visit the shop next time, I’ll show you.”
“Really?”
When I nodded, Hunter Suhyeon’s face brightened. Her sparkling eyes made it obvious she absolutely loved cats.
If I’d known, I would’ve dragged Hanyang out no matter what.
“Noona, don’t be fooled by how she looks. Once she enters a gate, she completely changes.”
“Ah! Why are you saying weird things again!!”
“Aagh! H-Hey, that hurts!”
Unlike her shy way of speaking, the way she smacked Kang Min Hunter was pretty brutal. That didn’t look playful at all; it genuinely seemed painful….
As I watched them, Hunter Lee Hyunwoo checked the time beside me.
“Enough. Let’s go inside.”
“Yes, leader!”
“Okaaay….”
At one word from Lee Hyunwoo Hunter, the two who had been glaring at each other finally started walking. I followed them into the area filled with shops I’d never visited before.
‘Wow… this place is unbelievable.’
Incheon Market, said to be the biggest in Korea, truly felt like another world.
Endless rows of tents, merchants loudly advertising their items, and hunters gathered in front of them, pondering their choices.
In some ways, it looked like an ordinary marketplace, but the products being sold were completely different, giving it a strange atmosphere.
“Noona, straight to item crafting? Or do you want to look around first?”
“I’ll look around at what’s available first, and if I can’t find anything suitable, then I’ll commission something.”
At my words, Kang Min Hunter looked around the area.
“I think items suited for noona would probably be over there…. Ah! The leader is… staring?”
Kang Min Hunter tilted his head.
When I turned around, Hunter Lee Hyunwoo was seriously examining an item.
When our eyes met, he gestured for me to come over. Kang Min Hunter looked like he’d just witnessed something unbelievable as he grabbed Hunter Suhyeon.
“Ah! We’ll go look at other items!”
“Huh? We’re not going together?”
“The leader’s there, what more do we need!”
Leaving behind Kang Min Hunter and Hunter Suhyeon as they hurried off, I walked over to his side.
“What do you think of this item?”
“What is this? It looks interesting.”
As I examined the item shaped like a tiny siren, the owner. A man with an impressive mustache approached nervously.
His movements were stiff, probably because Lee Hyunwoo Hunter’s presence intimidated him.
“I-It’s an attachable item that… s-sounds an alarm when it senses the user is in danger.”
He couldn’t even meet Lee Hyunwoo’s eyes, and his voice trembled pitifully. Meanwhile, the man in question calmly continued to look at the item without reacting.
“Hm. It would be good to install in the shop.”
After nodding, he pointed at another displayed item. The owner picked it up with trembling hands and passed it over.
“This one looks like a toy gun.”
“It may look like that, b-but the firepower is actually… pretty strong….”
It looked cute enough to appear in a magical girl anime, but apparently, its firepower was surprisingly high.
I took the item and slowly turned it over in my hands. I liked how light it was.
“It’s nice that it’s light, but strong firepower sounds a little worrying. I’d use it for self-defense, not in gates.”
Hunter Lee Hyunwoo shook his head.
“There’s no need to use it only in gates. If strange people show up, shoot them immediately.”
“…They’ll die, though?”
He said awakened people didn’t die that easily, so it was fine. And apparently, if someone threatened an F-rank, they deserved to die anyway.
He had a real talent for saying terrifying things completely casually.
After that, he examined several more items before nodding.
“This should be enough for now, though it’s still lacking.”
“…Lacking? There’s a ton here.”
“I picked them in a hurry, so there weren’t many decent items. Let’s check another shop.”
Then, before I could say anything, he held out his card. The shop owner, whose movements had suddenly become lightning fast only when it came time to pay, accepted the card with a huge grin and processed the payment.
“Uh, I-I should pay….”
When I looked up at him blankly, Lee Hyunwoo spoke without even looking at me.
“It’s fine. Even all of this costs practically nothing.”
Seriously… he spends money so recklessly because he has so much of it.
I accepted the shopping bag he handed me. Thanks to all the items inside, it was fairly heavy.
I quickly stuffed it into my inventory and hurried after him.
“How much was it? I’ll pay you back!”
“It’s fine. Is this everything you needed?”
“For now, yes. Honestly, this is way more than I expected to buy….”
My goal today had been simple: buy one basic self-defense item. If I couldn’t find something suitable, I planned to use the mana stone to commission a custom item. But thanks to Lee Hyunwoo Hunter piling up recommendations, it looked like I wouldn’t even need to use the large mana stone Ria Hunter had given me.
‘I should save the mana stone for later.’
I figured that after using today’s items, I’d probably realize I needed other things too. So I decided to save the mana stone for then.
Lee Hyunwoo Hunter insisted today’s purchases weren’t excessive at all and lectured me about practicing with them until I got used to them.
I half-listened while nodding absentmindedly. In the distance, I spotted Kang Min Hunter and Hunter Suhyeon.
“Noona! Over here….”
Kang Min Hunter, who had been waving at us, suddenly made a strange expression. Did his stomach hurt or something?
“What’s with those two? Why are they acting so affectionate?”
“I think this is my first time seeing the leader make that expression….”
“Am I dreaming? I’m seeing weird hallucinations.”
As I got closer and heard their conversation, I let out a laugh of disbelief.
Affectionate? We’d just been having a completely normal conversation.
There hadn’t even been anything special about it. Most of it had just been Lee Hyunwoo Hunter lecturing me.
I clicked my tongue inwardly as I looked at Lee Hyunwoo Hunter, whose face had already returned to its usual blank expression.
‘People misunderstand because he always looks so scary like that.’
Even if Lee Hyunwoo Hunter was somewhat cold and blunt, he wasn’t completely heartless. He picked out items for me, paid for them, and even gave me his clothes back at the gate.
Joohee, too… everyone was clearly misunderstanding him.
It was while thinking that as we walked.
“Hey, hurry up and get over here–ugh!”
Someone running toward us crashed straight into Lee Hyunwoo Hunter and tumbled to the ground.
He rolled around on the floor, screaming as if he’d slammed into a giant boulder.
“Ack! Who the hell doesn’t watch where they’re–huh?! Hunter Lee Hyunwoo!”
The moment he realized who he had collided with, his face turned deathly pale, and he squeezed his eyes shut while trembling.
“H-Hic, I-I’m sorry! I really didn’t know!”
“It’s fine. Please stand up.”
Lee Hyunwoo Hunter extended a hand, but the man seemed unable to even see it. He simply bowed his head and trembled.
Eventually, Lee Hyunwoo Hunter gave a slight nod and walked past the shaking man.
“Why is everyone so scared of Hunter Lee Hyunwoo? Is there a reason?”
Walking behind them, I couldn’t hold back my curiosity and whispered to Kang Min Hunter. He glanced at Lee Hyunwoo’s back before lowering his voice.
“Because he’s S-rank. There’s an oppressive pressure from someone whose level is completely different from theirs. And there are also rumors surrounding the leader.”
“Rumors?”
“They say he’s obsessed with clearing gates, and that he brutally kills anyone who gets in the way, whether civilian or hunter…. Some people even insist they’ve witnessed it themselves.”
I clicked my tongue in disbelief. I didn’t know him that well, but even so, I couldn’t believe those rumors.
If they were true, Lee Hyunwoo Hunter would’ve killed me the moment we met at the gate. Instead, once he realized I was human, he lowered his weapon and even protected me.
“Other hunters actually believe rumors like that?”
Kang Min Hunter shrugged.
“They’re scared of the leader, so they make up rumors like that. Childish, honestly.”
Looking around, everyone was watching Lee Hyunwoo nervously and avoiding him. The way they looked at him like he was a ticking time bomb felt unpleasant.
“Are you planning to stand there forever?”
In the middle of it all, Lee Hyunwoo Hunter turned around toward us with an utterly calm expression.
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