A faint rustling sound drifted through the air.
The sprawling house had a yard so large that merely watering the lawn looked like it could send the monthly water bill through the roof. The guest who stepped out of the black sedan followed the driver's directions toward the detached house ahead.
Despite the impressive exterior, however, the inside was surprisingly gloomy. Cold shadows pooled throughout the hallway. Even in broad daylight, the house was so large that without the lights on, it was difficult to see where one was going. Most of the furniture was made of expensive hardwood, yet even in the dim light, a layer of dust was clearly visible across its surfaces.
It was an odd feeling. The guest glanced around the single-story house, unsettled by its bleak atmosphere...
"Oh, you're here."
Her destination was the kitchen. A black island table topped with marble stood in the middle of the room. The neatly dressed man waiting there greeted the guest warmly as soon as he saw her.
What followed was a rather unfamiliar form of address.
"Thank you for coming all this way, Mother."
"Oh, it was no trouble at all."
"Please, sit over there."
The guest who had walked down the long hallway was none other than someone's mother.
"Normally, I should have taken you to a proper restaurant, but as you can see, I'm in this condition, so it's difficult for me to go out."
"Oh my! How did someone so young end up injured like that? Did you get hurt while working?"
"Of course."
The man, whose forearm and part of his trapezius were covered in burn scars, gestured toward the seat opposite him with his chin. At the signal, the attendant politely pulled out a chair for the guest. Once that was done, the elderly attendant quietly left the room, as though his role had come to an end.
'It's not as if his mouth is sewn shut. How can someone working under another person come and go without even saying hello?'
Just as that complaint crossed her mind—
"Well then, there isn't much, but please have a seat. We can eat while we talk."
"Aah, yes!"
At the homeowner's invitation, the guest nodded eagerly. After all, just as he had said, she had come here to pour out her grievances.
Hwayoung.
The reason a forty-nine-year-old Earthling had found herself in this situation was, in some ways, rather mundane. Even though the matter involved a monster with an S-rank Awakening level...
The problem was money.
'Listen carefully. If you ever show your face in front of me again, I swear I'll really kill you.'
In fact, Lee Hwayoung had followed the warning she'd been given quite faithfully until only a few days ago. The blond man's threatening attitude had been serious enough to frighten her. She could not directly sense magical power, but the media had been saying over and over that the son standing before her was an Awakened.
'I promise. I'll make you wish you were dead.'
Stories about fathers who beat their daughters with shoehorns over poor grades, only to end up in the emergency room after those same children suddenly became superhuman, were still common enough in the news.
Not wanting to take any chances, Lee Hwayoung decided to heed the warning for the time being.
[Web Message] Dear Customer Lee Hwayoung, payment for your current mobile phone service has not been confirmed. Your outstanding balance is 243,110 KRW. If payment is not made, outgoing calls from your mobile phone will be suspended. Please keep this in mind when using the service.]
[Missed Call @ Sunhwan Bank - 2 times]
[[Cheonyang Loans] Ms. Lee Hwayoung, your payment is overdue. Please pay the outstanding interest of 101,800 KRW as soon as possible.]
But things had changed somewhat since then.
Even though society had been transformed by the Dungeon Shock, she herself possessed no special abilities. On top of that, she suffered from a severe spinal condition that had long since passed the point where surgery could easily help, leaving her in constant nerve pain. Holding down any kind of physical labor job was nearly impossible.
Before long, the guest sitting in this enormous house found herself in circumstances not so different from those her son had once faced.
She had fallen ill and lost her job. Yet she still needed money for basic living expenses if she wanted to survive.
These days, from morning until night, she was consumed by the stress of debt collectors hounding her. In a situation like that, how could she afford to worry about some hypothetical act of filial impiety that had not even happened yet?
Whenever Hwayoung saw reports about hunters' annual incomes, a strange, gut-wrenching ache twisted inside her, as though tens of billions of won that had once been within her grasp had slipped through her fingers.
Now that she was living in poverty herself, desperation finally won out.
She decided to make one last gamble.
More precisely, it was an attempt at blackmail.
[From Orphanage Child in Crisis -> Reborn as an S-Rank Hunter]
Back when the world had been in an uproar over Chairman Go's furious outburst, her phone had actually received calls from people claiming to be producers from YTV and reporters from SBC.
Hwayoung had originally intended to refuse every request from the media. And indeed, for the past several months, she had ignored them all and lived quietly.
But lately, she had begun to feel an unexpected sense of injustice.
[Jeongseong Daily]
[Comments (44)]
[[BEST] How can you abandon your own child and still eat and sleep at night? Don't you have a conscience? Tsk, tsk.
What a coward. A demon in human skin.
Now that your son has become someone you can be proud of,
you must deeply regret abandoning him.]
The controversial Jeongseong Daily article had revealed that Kim Giryeo's mother was still alive in an attempt to smear him, though the plan had ultimately backfired. Netizens then hurled abuse such as "demon" at a biological mother whose name they did not even know.
But honestly, could anyone abandon a child they had raised with their own hands for more than a hundred days without feeling even the slightest regret?
If circumstances had allowed it, Hwayoung would have wanted to raise him too.
But his so-called father had been the kind of bastard who could not even quit smoking while the baby was still in the womb, puffing away right beside his pregnant wife. After the divorce, he had never once properly paid child support either.
Hwayoung believed that her ex-husband bore a large share of the responsibility for how things had turned out.
And truthfully, he did.
But because he had already passed away, people rarely mentioned him in these discussions.
That, Hwayoung found deeply unfair.
"Anyway, it's always the ones who live longer who end up taking all the blame."
On top of that, her now-adult child had given her a warning that was practically a death threat, making it difficult to approach him directly and ask for money.
"I'm so frustrated now that I feel like I need to explain myself to the whole world."
So—
In a country like South Korea, where family bonds were held in unusually high regard, imagine the backlash if an S-rank Hunter ever laid a hand on his own parent.
Kim Giryeo would not dare recklessly touch his biological mother with everyone watching.
Which meant...
"Haa."
...The explanation had gotten rather long.
To summarize, Lee Hwayoung had begun contacting reporters again some time ago. She intended to reduce the abuse directed at her while also trying to squeeze some hush money out of Kim Giryeo.
'An article about Kim Giryeo? Oh, um... a follow-up piece? That's... well, journalistic ethics... Anyway, we received orders from higher up not to pursue it...'
'You've got the wrong number. This isn't Reporter Lee Jiyoung's number.'
Strangely enough, however, the people at the broadcasting stations who had practically begged her to contact them at least once back in the spring suddenly changed their tune the moment a certain Hunter's name came up.
'Ughhh! I made a mistake. That text! The one I sent back then was a mistake! It was a mistake!'
After even a reporter named Yang Hyunggu loudly refused her, she had nearly given up on the whole thing.
Then, one day, Lee Hwayoung received a call from an unknown number.
A man with a deep voice told her that he was interested in her story. He suggested that, depending on how she handled things, he might even arrange a major exclusive about it.
And even though she had already heard his identity over the phone, seeing him in person was still startling.
'His face looks completely Western, and even his build is exactly like they say...'
Sitting across from her was Korea's third S-rank Hunter, Kang Changho.
The immense magical pressure radiating from a top-tier Awakened made Hwayoung's stomach tighten. At the same time, however, she did not want to offend her host by refusing the luxurious food laid out before her.
After all, the man sitting across from her was enormous, his frame packed tightly with muscle.
And he made his living hunting monsters.
"Hmm? You haven't touched your food for a while. Is it not to your taste?"
"Oh no, not at all! It's definitely not that..."
Anyone would naturally watch their words and actions in front of a Hunter like this.
That was only common sense.
Clank.
Kang Changho gave Hwayoung an odd look as she nervously forced herself to eat, the spoon trembling in her hand.
"Anyway."
Only then did the real conversation begin.
"I've more or less heard the whole story from Reporter Yang. You said you have quite a lot to say about Hunter Kim Giryeo."
"Uh? Oh, Yang Hyunggu... You know Reporter Yang Hyunggu?"
"Of course. I know him very well."
Kang Changho idly stirred his shark fin soup before eventually setting down his spoon.
"But strangely enough, despite having shared meals with Hunter Kim Giryeo on the job, I don't seem to know a single thing about him."
"Hmm."
"Then again, he's always been the quiet type. He hardly ever talks about himself."
"Is that so?"
"I've actually been curious about him for quite a while. And wouldn't you know it? I happened to hear that Kim Giryeo's mother was having difficulties."
'All right, then. Let's hear what kind of story you're trying to sell.'
Kang Changho leaned back in his chair with an expression that seemed to say exactly that.
What followed was a desperate stream of complaints.
"Th-the truth is, a long time ago... things weren't going well for me, so I had no choice but to leave my child at an orphanage..."
The homeowner had remained largely indifferent to Hwayoung's one-sided claims.
Until one particular point.
"Anyway, he started swearing at me as if he'd become a completely different person."
Tuk.
The S-rank Hunter set down the glass in his hand and asked her to explain in more detail.
At that, Hwayoung hesitantly began piecing the story together, one fragment at a time.
"'Shut your mouth, will you? Who's whining about their circumstances?'"
The man who had never once cursed at her before had completely changed, suddenly throwing all kinds of harsh words in her face.
"..."
Kang Changho listened to her testimony, the corner of his mouth lifting in curiosity.
Of course, a young man who had been swindled out of roughly 27 million won changing his attitude was hardly surprising.
But was that truly all there was to Kim Giryeo's sudden change?
Could there perhaps be some more unusual explanation?
Something more befitting a superhuman born in the era of the Dungeon Shock.
"...Oh my."
"Uh, wh-why? Did I say something wrong?"
The homeowner took a light sip of lemon water.
"No. Don't worry about it."
He had gotten the information he wanted.
It was probably about time to end the conversation.
"Oh, then can I assume that everything I told you will safely make it into the article...?"
"Mother. There's something I suddenly became curious about."
Someone was now sitting in a wooden chair that Kang Changho's parents had once used.
The owner of those dragon-like eyes fixed his gaze on the woman across from him.
Then he asked lightly,
"Putting his tone aside, was Kim Giryeo really that nice back then?"
"Yes?"
"No, it's just that... looking at you, I get the feeling your son probably never had much sense to begin with."
.
.
.
Ding-dong. Ding-dong.
'As expected, I guess this was too sudden. Maybe it's difficult for you to open the door?'
A doorbell rang somewhere.
The scene returned to that familiar one-room apartment.
At the moment, I was dealing with an unexpected visit from someone named Seonwoo Yeon.
'If letting me in isn't possible, then maybe we could just talk like this for a moment...'
Besides, the Earthling standing outside had been speaking this entire time under the assumption that I was inside.
Something about her behavior felt off.
Nevertheless, despite that unease, I eventually let the visitor in.
Click.
"Ah."
"I'm sorry I took so long to open the door. I was in the middle of something. Please, come in."
If she had come here with some suspicious purpose, then ironically, it would be easier to deal with her inside than outside.
"T-thank you."
Click... click.
The Association employee with long, straight hair stepped into the wizard's domain with an awkward expression.
Perhaps because she had already visited this one-room apartment before, she did not seem particularly surprised. She simply sat down when invited, like any ordinary guest.
By the time the green tea had finished steeping, she had handed me a few unfamiliar tools as gifts, explaining that I probably did not have anything like them at home.
'Is that a tea set and a tea timer?'
"Oh."
If they were free, there was no reason to refuse.
I gladly accepted the items the Association employee had brought.
What she said next, however, was shocking.
"Dropping by unannounced on a public holiday must have been terribly rude of me. First of all, let me apologize."
"It's fine. Honestly, since I don't have to go to work, days off don't really mean much to me anyway, so I don't think you need to bow your head that much..."
"A completely absurd complaint came in. That's why I had no choice but to come see you."
"Complaint?"
"The truth is, yesterday... on my way home from work, I, uh, encountered Hunter Kang Changho."
The moment she mentioned the name at the center of this whole mess, I froze.
"To be precise, it wasn't so much that I ran into him... He came looking for me one-sidedly. Anyway, when he handed me these, he said something extremely strange."
But the woman opposite me seemed not to notice and continued what she had been doing.
From the pocket of her jeans, she took out a small white box that fit easily in the palm of her hand.
Then, from that item box, she produced a magical tool I never could have imagined seeing here.
"There's a situation. If it's all right with you, before we get to the main point, may I ask you a few questions to confirm something?"
[Justitia].
Seonwoo Yeon held a spotless silver balance scale in both hands.
At the same time, she began murmuring some kind of incantation.
"Have you ever stolen the identity of someone named Kim Giryeo? Wow, saying it out loud really does sound like a joke. B-but for now, could you at least give me a rough answer...?"
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