Chapter 49

Translator: Vine
Translated At: Nyx Scans
Chapter: 49

Clink—

Emerging from the supermarket with the chime of the glass bell, Jehwi loaded the shopping bags filling both his hands into the trunk.

Today was a day off from the Princess of Dark Flare's hunter activities.
No, to be precise, it was the fifth day of her license suspension.

[The divine beast 'Cat Wandering in Darkness' fumes, paws on hips, saying it never thought that bastard would actually tattle, and that scum like him aren't friends or anything!]
[Humans really can't be trusted. The only one to trust in this world is me! It emphasizes this to you repeatedly.]

As the cat said, Yijun had indeed reported Eunha's individual actions to the Association.
Same for Trickster.

Consequently, both received a 20-day activity suspension.

Fortunately, Siwoo didn't blame Eunha.
Perhaps it was thanks to Jehwi.
Because he had brought an incredibly good opportunity that offset the temporary suspension of her hunter activities.

'...A broadcast appearance?'
'Yes. It was a hard-won spot. The Young Mas... no, the President praised me for it.'

Three days ago, Jehwi had said so with a very proud face.

Since appearing on OnHunt's <Star Hunters HOTter than Summer, 2031>, the Princess of Dark Flare hadn't made any broadcast appearances.

The program he had secured this time was a popular talk show on the public broadcast station K, promising viewership incomparably larger than the cable station OnHunt.

'Just appearing there will not only increase her recognition but also naturally raise her value. The appearance itself is proof of that.'

He was so excited when he said that...

Eunha, buckling her seatbelt in the passenger seat, glanced at Jehwi.

Instead of the steering wheel, Jehwi held his cellphone, frozen stiff.
Completely opposite to his excited demeanor yesterday, his face was dark as if attending a funeral.

"Shall we get going?"

Finally tired of waiting, Eunha spoke, and only then did Jehwi snap his head up.

"Ah, yes. Let's depart."

Hahaha. Jehwi laughed, scratching the back of his head, and shoved his phone into his pocket.

Jehwi had been acting strange since this morning.
His face seemed oddly gaunt, and she initially thought it was simply lack of sleep, but there seemed to be more to it.

"..."

Eunha slanted her gaze downwards.
His right hand, gripping the car's gear stick, was trembling slightly.

"Is something wrong?"

"What?"

Startled, Jehwi bumped his head on the car ceiling.

"No. Nothing wro-ong."

...There is.
Eunha was certain, but didn't probe further.

There was no conversation between the two after that.

Fortunately, they reached her mother's grave, their destination, without any major incidents.
However, Jehwi still wore the face of someone completely out of it.

As Eunha took out the apples she had bought earlier from the bag, Jehwi snapped his head up.

"Ah, give them here. I'll peel them."

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"Of course. Please don't underestimate a 14-year veteran homemaker."

Jehwi grabbed the paring knife, his face still looking dazed.
A few seconds later.

"Ah, ssp!"

As Jehwi yelped after cutting his hand with the knife, Eunha approached him smoothly.

"Give it here. I'll just do it."

"Ah, no. I want to do it."

Jehwi laughed, "Hahahat," and stubbornly refused to hand over the knife.

"This is your mother's grave, Ms. Hunter. That means she's someone I should serve too."

"...Is that so?"

"Yes. It is."

Jehwi diligently peeled the apple.
Though a few more sounds like "Ah!" and "Aah!" were heard in the meantime, Eunha decided not to take the knife from him anymore.

As time passed and the sun began to set languidly behind the forest of buildings, Jehwi spoke.

"Ms. Hunter."

Eunha, who had been gazing at the tombstone, slowly turned her head.
Jehwi's eyes, looking down at the tombstone, were complex.
The shadow cast on his face didn't seem to be solely due to the sunset.

"Losing family... what does it feel like?"

At the unexpected question, Eunha closed her lips.
What did it feel like?
That was a feeling truly indescribable, one she didn't even want to describe.

Startled back to reality by the heavy silence, Jehwi lifted his head.

"Ah... I asked something unnecessary. I apolog—"

"It's full of regret."

"Pardon?"

Thud. Stopping his movement, Jehwi slowly turned his head towards Eunha.

"I said, it's full of regret."

Whooosh—

A dry wind blew.
The wind, tinged with the sunset, felt warm yet chilly.
In the lukewarm atmosphere, Eunha's profile, bathed in the sunset, seemed deeply submerged somewhere.

"The moment my mother passed away, I wasn't by her side."
"Why was I somewhere else then? If I had known, I would have stayed home. If I had known, I wouldn't have complained about the side dishes that morning."

Self-reproach. Helplessness. And remorse.

Her voice, a mixture of everything, was neither cold nor hot, but surprisingly detached.
Like this wind, whose beginning was unknown.

"Those kinds of thoughts just constantly came to mind. Even now."

"I see."

Facing that, Jehwi couldn't add anything more.

The black eyes staring intently at the tombstone suddenly turned towards Jehwi.

"Something must be wrong."

The pitch-black eyes, impossible to read, seemed to see right through everything.
Hesitantly, Jehwi muttered in a barely audible voice.

"Could I... possibly take two days off... I'm truly sorry, but just two days."

No, even one day would be fine. He added.

"...Why?"

Following Eunha's question, a long silence flowed.

Only when the sky darkened and the streetlights below the hill began to turn on one by one did Jehwi finally, with difficulty, break the silence.

"I told you I have a younger sister."

"The one in Busan?"

Jehwi nodded heavily.

"...Actually, I haven't been able to reach her."
"For two whole days."

"Isn't she just busy?"

"She's not the type to not contact me just because she's busy."
"Having lost our parents early, she thinks of me, eight years her senior, like a parent."
"So, there must have been some accident..."

Jehwi couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence.
The mere thought of the terrible possibilities was horrifying, yet he couldn't help but imagine them.

"Out of worry, I installed a location tracking app on my sister's phone, and when I tracked her location this morning—"

Jehwi fumbled with his cellphone, then held it out to Eunha.

On the palm-sized screen, a map of Busan appeared.
And right in the middle, a red dot blinked.

"The last recorded coordinates were here, near Busan Jagalchi Market."

"Jagalchi Market?"

"Yes. Where a gate appeared."

Ah, now that he mentioned it, she seemed to recall similar news this morning.
Gates had been appearing so frequently in the Busan area lately that the TV was filled with nothing else.

Eunha, staring at his phone, parted her lips.

"If a civilian being swept in is confirmed, won't the Association dispatch agents?"
"Like last time."

"But..."

Jehwi's face clouded over.
In the heavy air, a subdued voice leaked out.

"There are rumors that the gate might be an Unknown Gate."

Suddenly, Eunha's usually composed face cracked.

"Unknown Gate?"

"The Association issued an evacuation order for nearby residents."
"But the fact that the gate auction hasn't opened yet is suspicious."

In the case of Unknown Gates, gate auctions were not held.
The Gate Management Bureau lacked the technology to predict the appearance of Unknown Gates in the first place, and even if prediction were possible, the risk level was deemed too high for general guilds to handle.

Therefore, it was an unwritten rule that Unknown Gates bypassed the auction process and were subjugated by guilds possessing S-Class hunters.

"I don't want to think the worst either, but... if what appeared in Jagalchi Market isn't a regular gate but an Unknown Gate, then Jerim, my sister, is—"

Jehwi couldn't continue, gripping his phone tightly.
Now it made sense why he had been acting like someone completely out of it all day.

Staring quietly at Jehwi's profile, Eunha slowly parted her lips.

"Want me to go with you?"

"...Thank you for the offer, but it's alright. I can't impose on you."
"Tomorrow is an important day, isn't it?"

"Then how about telling Shin Siwoo."

"What?!"

Jehwi jumped in place and shook his head vehemently.
Whoosh, the sound of him cutting through the air was almost audible.

"N-n-n-no, it's alright. Really."
"It's not even certain if it's really an Unknown Gate yet, and my sister might have simply lost her phone."

...Seeing him react like that, it seemed he really didn't want to ask Siwoo for help.
With Jehwi looking so resolute, pressing the offer further felt awkward.

"...Okay. Then go ahead."

Eunha nodded.

"I can go to the broadcast station alone."
"And it's not my first time recording, so it doesn't matter."

"A-are you really sure?"

"Yes."

Looking back, since taking charge of Eunha, Jehwi had worked weekdays and weekends alike.
A day or two off was nothing.
Thanks to that, Eunha felt she could enjoy some alone time after a long while.

"Thank you so much, Ms. Hunter."

Jehwi, who had bowed his head several times in gratitude, stopped abruptly.
And carefully added one request.

"And... could you perhaps keep this a secret from the Young Mast— no, the President?"

Jehwi furrowed his brow, looking slightly troubled.
Setting aside their long-standing trust, Jehwi still seemed intimidated by Siwoo.

Finding Jehwi, who stiffened just mentioning his name, somehow amusing, Eunha smiled faintly and nodded.

"Okay. I'll do that."

"...! Thank you!"

From then on, Jehwi didn't sigh anymore.
He didn't suddenly brake or swerve the steering wheel either.

Arriving safely at the parking lot, Jehwi unloaded the luggage from the trunk and saw her up to the 17th floor.

"Well then, Ms. Hunter, I'll head straight to Seoul Station."
"I'll definitely be back by tomorrow afternoon at the latest."

"Have a safe trip."

"Yep! Have a peaceful night!"

He seemed incredibly worried about his sister.
Jehwi dashed towards the elevator.
Watching his retreating back, the thought suddenly occurred to her—what would it have been like if she had siblings too?

The next day. AM 7:23

Manager Park
By the way, President, is it really alright to send Hunter Lee Yura to an A-Class gate?
AM 7:23

Thank you for granting the leave.
AM 7:23

A message arrived from Jehwi.
Eunha, lying in bed, slowly tapped the screen.

How did it go
AM 7:24

Manager Park
I visited the share house where my sister was staying, looks like she hasn't been home for two days ㅠㅠ
AM 7:24

Just arrived at Jagalchi Market. I'll check nearby and head back to Seoul by evening at the latest.
AM 7:24

Recording starts at 2 PM, right? Sorry I can't be there ㅠㅠ
AM 7:25

Go Hunter-nim, fighting!!! (Emoticon)
AM 7:25

Chuckling softly at the emoticon of a dog setting off firecrackers, Eunha tapped the screen rapidly.

Manager-nim, you be careful too.
AM 7:25

Manager Park
Yep! I'll send the broadcast station location and writer's contact info in a bit! ^^7
AM 7:27

And time flowed, reaching 12:09 PM.

Eunha picked up her silent phone again.

Jehwi, who said he would contact her, still hadn't.
She needed to start heading out soon.

"...Is he busy?"

Given his profession, he was meticulous about time and work commitments.
It seemed strange that such a Jehwi would suddenly go silent.

Manager-nim?
PM 12:09

The broadcast station location and writer's contact info, not yet?
PM 12:09

Tick, tock. Time passed.
Having finished getting ready to leave, Eunha checked her phone once more.

Incoming Messages: 0
Missed Calls: 0

While staring at the empty inbox, her phone suddenly buzzed.

Blue Eyes
010-XXXX-XXXX

It was Siwoo.

"Hello."

「Sunbae, it's me. Have you left yet?」

"...Just about to leave now."

「Is that so? Manager Park must be a little late then.」

"No. I overslept."

「You, Sunbae?」

"Yeah."

「...」

It seemed he found the fact that Eunha overslept quite unbelievable.

"...I was a bit tired yesterday."
"But why did you call?"

Eunha deliberately decided to change the subject.

「Ah, it's nothing important.」

Fortunately, Siwoo didn't press further.

「Today's recording is a good opportunity in many ways, but like last time, it might be best not to act too conspicuously.」

"Why is that?"

「Lately, there are more eyes watching Sunbae.」

"Isn't that what you wanted?"

「Well... yes, but...」

Siwoo trailed off uncharacteristically.

「...Anyway, please. It would be best to refrain from conspicuous actions for the time being.」

"Okay. I need to leave now, so I'll hang up."

Click.
Hanging up the phone, Eunha let out a short sigh.
Lying didn't sit well with her.

'Manager Park is still...'

Eunha tapped the phone screen.

New Message: 1

Flash. The screen lit up.
Did he finally contact me?
Eunha immediately opened the yellow message box and checked the new message.

Manager Park
Hntr-nim
PM 1:02

"...?"

A typo?
The moment she tilted her head, buzz, another message arrived with a short vibration.

Manager Park
hlep
PM 1:02