Tuk!
Soon, white fangs pierced two small holes into the skin.
Hunter Choi Jinhee buried her face against Giryeo's arm, her throat bobbing as she swallowed deeply. At first, he had assumed she would simply lick up whatever blood seeped from the wound.
'Oh.'
It was almost as though her fangs had their own suction mechanism.
Like a syringe drawing blood, Choi Jinhee drank without wasting a single drop. The way she hurriedly quenched her thirst bordered on ravenous.
"Fuaah!"
How long had it been since she'd stumbled upon a windfall like this?
She lifted her head with an immensely satisfied expression. Meanwhile, Giryeo, who had already begun stopping the bleeding from his arm, continued the conversation.
"Does my blood really taste that good? Nothing about it seemed strange?"
He had taken care to maintain his body properly, but strictly speaking, he was someone who had died once and come back to life.
There was bound to be some difference between him and an ordinary Earthling.
"It's sweet!"
"Aha."
"And it's a little cold?"
He paused.
Giryeo adjusted his sleeve while looking down into her clear eyes.
But he said nothing more.
There was no particular need to conclude the subject. The conversation had already moved on naturally.
"Oppa, by the way, don't tell my sister later that I drank your blood, okay?"
"You want me to keep it a secret?"
"Yes, yes."
Shhh.
The B-rank Hunter pressed a finger to her lips, signaling for silence.
Giryeo nodded.
It wasn't much money—only 150,000 won—but taking cash from a friend's relative still didn't look particularly good.
There was even the possibility that someone might scold him for not simply giving her the blood for free.
"Promise me. When my sister gets here, don't say a word!"
Giryeo gave her a short reply.
"Not later. She's here now."
"Heuk."
As if on cue, Hunter Choi Jin appeared in the lounge.
Ahn Yoonseung returned from the parking lot at almost exactly the same time.
Now that everyone had gathered, Giryeo proceeded to have a serious conversation with the Choi sisters...
***
What Kim Giryeo, the S-rank Hunter, wanted to hear was none other than Choi Jin's firsthand experience.
Red Dragon, Green Dragon, Black Dragon.
The dragons appearing on Earth could broadly be divided into those three types, but the only one Giryeo knew anything about was the Black Dragon—a newly emerged species that used poison. ṝＡ₦ộBЕＳ
Attack patterns.
Weaknesses.
Effective attributes.
Giryeo wanted to learn how to deal with the other two types of dragons.
In exchange, he was perfectly willing to answer her questions honestly as well.
"If it's about dungeon items, I can probably give you a satisfactory answer. I've personally studied that field for a long time."
He could also exchange information about the Black Dragon.
There were plenty of ways for him to repay the favor.
"It's fine."
"Ah... is that so?"
However, Hunter Choi Jin flatly rejected his offer.
She said nothing else, but the displeasure in her eyes was obvious.
After the exchange of information ended, Choi Jin, Choi Jinhee, and Ahn Yoonseung left the S-rank Hunter behind in the lounge and headed up to the rooftop.
Cik.
The moment Choi Jin opened the rooftop door, she lit a cigarette.
But when her cousin simply stood beside her without doing anything, she asked in a puzzled tone,
"Don't you smoke too?"
Yoonseung replied that he had quit some time ago.
At that, Choi Jin tilted her head.
"What? An Awakened quitting smoking...?"
"Hyungnim told me to quit."
The moment someone who wasn't present was mentioned, the woman's expression visibly darkened.
What followed was an irritated scolding.
"Yeah, whatever. Ahn Yoonseung, how could you make plans like this when you know we're busy? You're putting us in a difficult position."
Admittedly, it had been fairly last-minute.
They had only contacted each other two days earlier.
"That's why I asked if you had time..."
From Ahn Yoonseung's perspective, there were plenty of reasons to feel wronged.
When he had contacted Choi Jin last week, {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} she hadn't been nearly this cold.
"You were the one who said it was too much trouble to summarize everything in an email, so I should just come and hear it directly."
"I thought we'd catch up while we were at it since we're relatives. Who knew you'd bring someone like that along?"
Whoo.
Choi Jin let out a deep sigh.
Yoonseung, clearly bewildered, tried to defend himself.
"What do you mean? I introduced you to an S-rank with good intentions. What's wrong with that? And honestly, what's bad about knowing high-level Hunters? Isn't that useful when you're all in the same industry?"
"What?"
"No, I mean, he's an S-rank. So naturally, I thought you'd be happy to meet him."
The only response he received was the angry voice of a Hunter.
"Ugh!"
Choi Jin smacked her cousin across the back.
As expected of a Hunter who had gained A-class magical power through the item [Dragon's Heart], the blow was strong enough to make Yoonseung gasp.
"What do you mean, 'happy'? You seriously don't understand why I'm angry?"
"Unnie, don't fight..."
Choi Jin raised her voice, ignoring her younger sister's attempt to intervene.
"Hey, Ahn Yoonseung. What are you planning to do with judgment this bad? Now that I think about it, you even formed a temporary party with Hunter Kim Giryeo back in January, didn't you?"
"Mermaid's Pass?"
"Exactly! Then you should know who that guy usually hangs around with!"
At this point, the reason Choi Jin had been hostile toward Giryeo from the beginning finally became clear.
She viewed Kim Giryeo's association with a certain Hunter extremely negatively.
"If he spends time with that bastard Kang Changho, then it's obvious what kind of person he is. So from now on, stop associating with people like that!"
At the mention of Changho's name, even the younger sister standing quietly behind them showed visible disgust.
The events of the past were something neither of them wanted to remember.
Both sisters had suffered the unfortunate experience of being assaulted by the same man—the Hunter named Changho.
"You can find news articles about him with one quick search! Seriously, how could you even team up with someone like that..."
Usually, whenever an assault case became public, people online were quick to speculate.
There must have been some reason for it.
No fight happens without a cause.
Perhaps both sides were at fault.
Irresponsible assumptions like those always followed.
But in Choi Jin's case, she truly had been an innocent victim.
There had been no hidden story behind it.
She had simply gone to work at the gate, as usual.
"Ah, are you the ace of the Faith Guild?"
That was all.
And then she had been beaten by a certain freelance Hunter she happened to encounter inside.
"Yeah. It was strange from the moment he suddenly agreed to help out a small guild like ours."
Kang Changho had a history of attacking Choi Jin while pretending it was an accident.
Because of his S-class transcendent physical abilities, there had been no clear eyewitnesses.
But at the very least, the victim herself had been certain that it was intentional.
"He aimed directly at me."
The attack had pierced through the monster and reached Choi Jin behind it.
The injury it caused was so severe that it was difficult to believe it had been inflicted with bare hands.
The news reports had reduced the whole thing to the phrase "serious injury."
But in reality, it had been a chilling incident.
She had bled profusely and come dangerously close to having her internal organs exposed.
"I'm stressed."
What made matters worse was that, at the time, she had been too shaken to understand what had really happened.
Only later did she learn that the attack had in fact been an attempt to steal someone else's power.
Not long afterward, another owner of [Dragon's Heart] was murdered overseas.
The culprit claimed he had killed the victim because he believed the heart would revert to its original form as a pure item.
However, subsequent verification proved that reality was entirely different.
"Whoo..."
Kang Changho's persistent interest in Choi Jin had abruptly disappeared after that foreign news report.
Just how terrifying had that experience been?
He had dared to evaluate another human being as nothing more than prey.
And now, more frightening than anything else was the fact that another Hunter gave her the same feeling as Kang Changho.
"Disgusting."
Eyes that seemed to look at a person as though they were something other than human.
Choi Jin had instinctively realized that Giryeo looked down on them.
To an extent that wasn't even comparable to that third S-rank Hunter.
Ahn Yoonseung, however, stubbornly rejected that conclusion.
"Look, Hyung-nim isn't that kind of person. I think you're misunderstanding him because he always looks so stern, but he's actually keeping Kang Changho around to punish him."
Keeping Kang Changho around to punish him?
Had the guy started drinking after quitting smoking?
"I saw it myself. Inside the dungeon, Kang Changho was basically Hyung-nim's lackey!"
Yoonseung continued arguing passionately.
Yet every word coming out of his mouth sounded harder to believe than the last.
He claimed Kang Changho had taken care of minor monsters flying toward other people.
That he had praised some blond S-rank Hunter as being vastly superior to himself.
And that, in Yoonseung's opinion, Kang Changho must already have been thoroughly crushed by Kim Giryeo at some point.
Otherwise, there was simply no explanation for why he would behave so obediently.
"Did Kim Giryeo tell you that himself?"
"No, but I'm almost certain. When I asked Hyung-nim what kind of relationship he had with Hunter Kang Changho, he just said, 'It's complicated, but we're definitely not close.'"
Yoonseung clenched his fist and spoke with confidence.
"So don't worry!"
Choi Jin, standing opposite him, wore a complicated expression.
"I'm the idiot for taking this seriously..."
She put the cigarette back between her lips and drew in a deep breath until the ember burned close to the filter.
Truthfully, it was difficult to believe that the fourth S-rank had subdued Kang Changho through sheer skill alone.
Kang Changho was an Awakened filled with pride and arrogance.
She could tell instinctively that he hated anyone who challenged his position.
So if the fight Ahn Yoonseung described had truly happened, one of the two should have been completely defeated.
"Tsk."
Seeing that his cousin was still in a foul mood, Ahn Yoonseung wisely decided to make himself scarce.
He said he would head downstairs first.
Soon, only the sisters remained on the rooftop.
"Jinhee-ya, are you cold? Should we go down too?"
After finishing her cigarette, Choi Jin spoke in a voice completely different from before.
Soft.
Gentle.
Her younger sister stared at her face for a moment before hesitantly speaking.
"Unnie, do you not like that oppa?"
The younger sister, who still hadn't even memorized the man's name, was obviously referring to the fourth S-rank Hunter when she said 'Oppa.'
"Yeah. I don't like him. So, Jinhee, don't get too close to him from now on, okay?"
"_ _"
"It's dangerous. You remember when an S-rank hurt me before, don't you? That guy is just like Kang Changho. He's an incredibly strong and frightening Hunter. If you mess with him, you'll get hurt again."
"_ _"
"Unnie will always protect you in other situations, but... S-rank Hunters are really dangerous, Jinhee."
Choi Jin spoke calmly, trying to advise her.
Naturally, her younger sister didn't seem inclined to listen.
"I wish you wouldn't dislike that Oppa, Unnie."
Right.
In truth, Choi Jin didn't want to be this tense either.
But circumstances had made her this way.
If she didn't remain vigilant, she couldn't fully protect what mattered to her.
"...You wish Unnie didn't dislike him?"
She answered softly.
"Mhm!"
"Is that so?"
Her smile was always like an angel's.
"That guy is delicious and kind!"
"What?"
"Ah."
In a certain sense, perhaps that honesty really was angelic.