30 years

"Why hasn't there been any news yet?"

Gwanghyun stared nervously at his watch. Siwoo, who had confidently promised to return within an hour, had not returned.

'Should I just go home?'

It was already well past his work hours. By now, it was clear that his daughter would be calling her father by now.

Gwanghyun, who had been in this dilemma countless times, was unable to leave.

'If I left, I'd have nothing to say to the president of the association.'

The president of the Hunter Association was eyeing Siwoo.

Shin Siwoo was an S-Class hunter. His natural lineage was also precious.

More notably, he was able to handle water as well as ice. His abilities could be used indefinitely not only in battle, but also for fighting fires or rescuing refugees.

'The president of the association deserves to be greedy.'

But will he accept the offer? Gwanghyun didn't think that he would even wiggle an eyebrow with his sense of humor.

Siwoo was reluctant to appear in public. It was not known whether it was by his own will or the will of the Wolf Guild.

Although he went through the tutorial process, which had been delayed until today, he still acted as if he was not interested in hunter activities.

How the heck would he be able to entice Siwoo into the association? Gwanghyun dwelled on those unanswered worries for about 30 minutes.

Just then, the bell rang.

"No, Hunter Shin!"

Crash!

The chair he was sitting on collapsed with a loud noise.

The face that had just been rotten a few moments ago was nowhere to be seen, and Gwanghyun opened the door with a full-faced smile.

By the way.

Gwanghyun's face suddenly hardened when he saw Siwoo.

"Huh? Did something happen?"

"No, well…"

Siwoo trailed off at the end of his words.

The hoodie he was wearing had holes in several places, as if it had been splattered by sparks.

Burnt shoes, disheveled hair, and dark, ash-stained cheeks. Gwanghyun couldn't hide his embarrassment at Siwoo's appearance, which was quite different from when he left the cafe.

'An S-Class struggled in a B-Class gate?'

It was ridiculous. It'd be more realistic to encounter a fire on the way back.

"Here you go."

Siwoo suddenly held out a purple mineral, the gate core. So, even though there were ups and downs, the tutorial seemed to have been completed.

Gwanghyun didn't know why he became like that, but the fact that he came back after clearing the B-Class gate by himself was proof that he was indeed an S-Class Hunter.

"That's amazing. First, sit here. You must be very busy, so I will tell you quickly."

"Do you know how to do something like first aid?"

"Yes, first aid—."

Standing tall, Gwanghyun stopped.

"Yes? First aid? Where did you get hurt…?"

"Not me."

Siwoo quickly raised his thumb and pointed at his back.

"It's for her."

Only then did Gwanghyun realize that Siwoo was carrying something on his back. It was a young woman of a small figure, hidden by his large back.

"This is… huh."

Gwanghyun took a breath.

Wrapped in black cloth like a caterpillar, she had a very pale complexion. The wrists sticking out of her black sleeves were strangely pale and skinny.

"Please check her condition. I can't go to the hospital because of certain circumstances."

Saying that, Siwoo looked a little nervous.

He was required to have first aid and basic medical knowledge so that he could solve incidents and accidents anytime and anywhere if he was a member of an association that handled hunter and gate-related tasks. But knowing this, Siwoo was still asking for help.

From Gwanghyun's point of view, there was nothing wrong with accepting his request. It wasn't that he was asking for surgery right away, so if it was just a brief look, then it would be fine.

The moment Gwanghyun was about to approach her, Siwoo suddenly opened his mouth.

"Oh, be careful. If she wakes up now, I won't be able to stop her."

"… What?"

Gwanghyun slowly blinked his eyes. Did he hear it wrong? Siwoo, an S-Class hunter, couldn't stop her…

Gwanghyun looked at her slowly.

It'd been a while since he had seen someone with such black hair. Because of the influence of gates, contracted divine beasts, and superpowers, modern people, irrespective of the East and the West, had started to have colourful hair and eye colours.

From Siwoo's attitude and unusual attire, he was obviously an awakened person. So, Gwanghyun couldn't believe that she had such pure black hair.

Her hair wasn't the only thing that was odd.

'That dress. And unless I'm losing my mind, the thing she's holding in her hand… It's a parasol.'

The dress with excessive lace was as black as her hair.

Was it a cosplay? For such a thing, the details were strangely realistic, whether it was the slightly worn ribbon or the sleeve with a glimpse of blood.

"Well, there doesn't seem to be any specific injuries other than a severe fever. I'm wondering if it's just simply exhaustion."

"So it's not that bad?"

"Yes. When the fever goes down, she'll probably come to her senses soon. Well, I can't be sure since I'm not a doctor, but that's my opinion."

"Okay. Thank you."

Was it because of the mood? For an instant, Siwoo's face seemed to be stained with relief.

But after a moment, he jumped up from his seat and hugged her gently.

"Oh, wait a minute, Hunter Shin."

Gwanghyun blocked Siwoo's way.

"I still have something to tell you."

"I will decline any invitation to join the association. As you know, I already have a guild."

"But your father is already with the Wolf Guild…"

"I will decline."

Siwoo, who cut off his words, stared straight at Gwanghyun. He spoke softly with a face that didn't hide his annoyance.

"After the tutorial, didn't you say that I can carry out activities freely?"

"Well, then how about this? First of all, tomorrow… No, visit the association whenever you have time—"

"Get out of my way, please."

Siwoo, who cut off Gwanghyun's words once again, tilted his head.

"There are other things I need to prioritize compared to that."

He had no more courage left to stop him. In the end, Gwanghyun had no choice but to let the S-Class hunter go in front of his eyes.

"… It's not easy, really."

Gwanghyun stared at Siwoo's back through the window and watched as he gradually became smaller.

Then, he suddenly realized one thing.

'… Wait a minute. Come to think of it, that woman looked just like the Princess of Dark Flare in the ghost story.'

A black dress stained with blood.

A parasol with a black rose pattern.

Shoes with thorns.

Long hair.

Blood-stained skin.

Everything fitted perfectly.

'No way… It can't be.'

Gwanghyun shook his head. At that moment, Siwoo's warning flashed through his mind.

'If she wakes up now, I probably won't be able to stop her either.'

Gwanghyun's movements stopped abruptly. His instincts were telling him.

That girl, there's something about her.

***

Something smelled good.

Eunha slowly opened her eyelids. She had a headache that felt like someone was poking her forehead with a needle. This excruciating headache was yet to show any signs of getting better.

"This is…"

She looked around with her forehead throbbing. Eunha recognized that the smell was the scent of fabric softener on the blanket.

Eunha was still dazed. As she pulled her body up, she saw a white box in her hazy vision.

'This.'

Carefully folded inside the box was Eunha's old military uniform. Why was this…? During her moment of confusion, a thin shadow fell beside Eunha.

"Oh, are you awake? I will bring the master."

It was a young woman cleaning the room.

'… Room?'

Only then did the surrounding environment clearly enter Eunha's field of vision.

A fluffy bed,

A wooden table,

White curtains,

And… Sunshine.

When her dazed eyes finally focused, her black pupils widened greatly.

Crash!

Eunha fell out of bed.

"Oh my, are you okay?"

The woman came over and held out her hand. Without taking her hand, Eunha looked around her with a stunned face.

'This isn't a gate.'

Escape… Did she do it?

How the hell?

Eunha's memories were cut off at the end of the battle against the blue-eyed hunter.

In her confused mind, a voice she had never heard before pierced through.

"Looks like you're awake."

"Ah, master."

"Good job. Now get out."

Eunha raised her head.

The blue-eyed hunter. It was him.

"How is your body?"

Judging from his tone and expression, it seemed as if he was genuinely concerned about her physical condition, even though that wasn't possible.

Whoosh!

She didn't answer him and leapt quickly and stood on the edge of the bed instead. Black flames flared from her shoulders, as if to prove her hostility.

"…"

It was strange. The man made a troubled face, and instead of taking his battle stance, he raised his hands in a surrendering gesture.

"I'm sorry if I startled you."

Polite words. Eunha's eyes narrowed. Eunha did not loosen her hardened face in front of the man whose attitude and tone had changed. It was difficult to comprehend his attitude, which was very different from during the battle.

"I will tell someone to prepare gruel. Can you eat it?"

A subtle silence passed between the two of them. Eunha still hadn't stopped her flames, and looked at him sharply. The hostility in her eyes still hadn't disappeared.

Siwoo opened his mouth and spoke in the calmest tone possible without hastily narrowing the distance with Eunha.

"Please don't be so wary. If I wanted to do something, I would have done it already."

Eunha checked every inch of her body. There were no signs of injuries or restraint except for the lack of strength in the body and severe headaches. Rather, traces of treatment were seen everywhere.

"… Why did you attack like you were about to kill me? What's your plan?"

"Wasn't it a situation where anyone could misunderstand?"

There weren't just a few humanoid monsters that appeared in gates. They were rare to say the least, but they had still appeared before. Furthermore.

"Normal humans don't smell that strongly of blood."

"So you still think I'm a monster."

"Didn't I tell you? If I had thought of it that way, I would have already killed you while you were sleeping."

Exhausted, Eunha slept soundly for almost two days. During that time, twisting her neck would've been easier than breaking a child's finger.

But, Siwoo didn't.

Eunha glanced at him. From Eunha's point of view, there were many things she wanted to ask him. How he got into the gate, how he was able to get himself out of there, and…

'You called me the Princess of Dark Flare.'

How did he know about the title that even Eunha didn't know?

"…"

The black flame that was burning by her side slowly faded away. Of course, it wasn't completely extinguished.

Eunha, who sharpened her eyes, raised her gaze. Siwoo was sitting a little further away in an upright position. He had a respectful attitude as if he was speaking to his superiors.

"Thank you."

In front of Eunha, who seemed to have a bit of heart to talk, he showed a smile of relief. Eunha's eyebrows twitched. What the hell is up with this guy?

Meanwhile, Siwoo thought.

Judging from the circumstances so far, there was a high probability that she was human. The evidence was as follows.

1. The gate exit was open even though she was not dead. What this meant was that she wasn't the gate's boss.

2. Siwoo checked the surroundings without leaving the gate immediately after Eunha had lost consciousness. As a result, he found a hut nearby that looked like it was made by human hands.

A pile of monster corpses was charred, as if it had been used as a campfire, and there were old military uniforms, wrapping paper presumed to be emergency food shells, and books with dust on them.

'I don't know why the TOEIC problem book was there.'

tl/n: TOEIC is the Test of English for International Communication

3. Monsters are supposed to attack defenseless humans. This was unconditional. However, as soon as she opened her eyes, she did not attack the caretaker she had met.

And lastly, 4.

"I'll give this back. I borrowed it for a while."

Siwoo held out a golden dog tag to Eunha. The investigation was already over, so it was no longer needed.

Eunha received it with a wary gesture and naturally hung it back around her neck. Siwoo, who was sitting opposite to her, stared with a strange gaze, then slowly opened his mouth.

"First of all, welcome to the world 30 years later, sunbae."

As soon as Siwoo finished speaking, Eunha, who was now wearing her dog tag, stiffened like a rock.

… What?