Translator: Vine
Translated At: Nyx Scans
Chapter: 50
[Changwon City Drama Set Collapse, an Incident Unforeseen Even by the Gate Management Agency... Serious and Minor Injuries Reported, No Confirmed Fatalities]
[Gate Appears at Gimhae City P Company Apartment Construction Site, Issues Raised Regarding Delayed Response by Association and Hunters]
[Haeundae Beach Closed Indefinitely Due to Successive Gate Appearances, Concerns Over Local Economic Downturn]
[Busan Metropolitan City: 58 Gate Appearances This Month Alone, a 24% Surge in One Year...]
[Immortal Guild Declares Concentrated Activity in Gyeongnam Region]
[Unknown Gate Appears Near Busan Jagalchi Market on the 30th. Reappearance After 5 Months]
Scratch. The finger scrolling through the screen stopped.
It seemed the recent frequent gate appearances in the Gyeongnam region were indeed true.
Eunha lifted her head and looked out the window.
'Out of worry, I installed a location tracking app on my sister's phone... The last recorded coordinates were here, near Busan Jagalchi Market.'
The scenery outside blurred past at a speed impossible to follow with the eyes.
「Our train will soon arrive at Daejeon Station. Thank you to all our customers for using KTX today. We will soon be arriving at Daejeon Station──.」
An announcement played along with cheerful background music.
Daejeon... are we halfway there?
After checking the display board, Eunha turned her gaze back to her phone.
Busan Station to Jagalchi Market
In their last message exchange, Jehwi had said he arrived at Jagalchi Market.
If something happened, it must have been there.
'...Though I wonder if this is really necessary.'
Eunha stared blankly at the train ticket on her lap.
By now, the recording at the broadcast station must have already started.
They likely couldn't reach the manager either, so Silver Moon and Siwoo's side would probably be contacted soon.
In short, a huge commotion was expected.
However, Eunha had bought a train ticket to Busan, ditching the recording.
Manager Park
hlep
PM 1:02
His last message just wouldn't leave her mind.
She had a bad feeling.
And Eunha's bad feelings were always right.
Of course, Jehwi was an adult perfectly capable of taking care of himself.
However, age meant nothing inside a gate.
If he had done the crazy thing of jumping into the gate to chase his sister, the safety of Jehwi, a non-awakened person, couldn't be guaranteed.
Especially if it was an Unknown Gate.
'Hope nothing happened.'
She didn't want to see anyone else around her broken by gates or monsters anymore.
That was why.
The reason she splurged on a KTX ticket, said to be faster than the Saemaeul-ho.
The one-way fare from Seoul to Busan was a whopping 108,900 won.
Round trip would be over 200,000 won.
Prices might have risen, but for a train, not even a plane, it was ridiculously expensive.
Expensive enough to make even the usually detached Eunha hesitate.
But at this speed, it certainly wouldn't take even 3 hours to reach Busan.
Perhaps there was a reason for the high price.
"Excuse me."
While engrossed in gathering Busan information through Naver Knowledge iN, an unfamiliar voice came from the aisle.
Someone pointed at Eunha's parasol.
"Hey, that's my seat."
She must have boarded at Daejeon Station, where they had just stopped.
With brown bobbed hair reaching her shoulders and a pink baseball cap pulled low, she looked like a high school student.
The teddy bear bomber jacket seemed out of season.
Eunha moved the black parasol she had placed on the adjacent seat down to her feet.
"Thanks."
Flop.
Sitting down, the girl unzipped her bomber jacket.
She must have been hot.
"Huh. Unnie, are you perhaps a concept hunter?"
Eunha, whose gaze had been fixed on her phone, slowly lifted her head.
Eyes the color of deep pink azaleas stared intently at Eunha, or more precisely, at the clothes Eunha was wearing.
"...Not exactly."
After the short reply, Eunha lowered her gaze back to her phone.
However, the conversation, which she thought would end there, surprisingly continued quite naturally.
"Huh? You're not?"
The girl's eyes widened.
Wearing a dress and carrying a black parasol—if not a concept hunter, then what?
"Are you really not a concept hunter?"
"...That's how I'm known, though."
"Ah, I knew it? I've only seen concept hunters on TV. Seeing one in person is amazing."
Meeting a concept hunter in person, the girl's eyes shone with curiosity.
There was something she had always wanted to ask if such a day came.
"How is it? Is the pay decent?"
"..."
Slowly, Eunha lifted her gaze from her phone to look at the girl.
Even Eunha, ignorant of modern common sense, knew that asking a stranger about their income was rude.
But then.
"Hmm, trade secret? Still, can't you give me just a tiny hint? I'll give you this."
The girl rustled through her pocket and took out two candies.
One red, one yellow.
After staring seriously at the two candies alternately, the girl resolutely held out the yellow candy.
"Alright. For Unnie, I'll specially give you my favorite lemon flavor."
"..."
"Hmm, then I'll give you both. Deal?"
...Pfft.
Eunha let out an involuntary chuckle.
The girl, offering both candies as if doing a great favor, seemed somehow amusing and fun.
"...There's no separate income; I receive a contract fee from my sponsoring guild."
"Ah. So that's how it is."
The girl didn't pry about the sponsoring guild.
She seemed to have that much sense.
Rolling the candy in her mouth, the girl smiled as if pleased.
"Seeing that you have a contract, does that mean Unnie is a free hunter too?"
"Free hunter?"
"Freelancer plus hunter! It's a new term, don't you know it?"
She didn't know.
Eunha unwrapped the candy the girl had given her and popped it into her mouth.
A sweet and tangy lemon flavor pleasantly filled her mouth.
She didn't know how long it had been since she last ate candy.
Like that, Eunha chatted amiably with the girl beside her until they reached Busan.
Seeing how naturally the girl carried the conversation with the reserved Eunha, she seemed quite extraordinary herself.
"Unnie, you're heading to Busan to make a big score too, right?"
She wasn't going for a big score, but she was going to Busan.
When Eunha answered, "Yeah," the girl nodded as if she understood.
"Unnie knows how to sniff out money too, huh? Just hitting about two places this time should cover living expenses for a while."
"Where are you planning to go, Unnie?"
"Jagalchi Market."
"Eh. Jagalchi Market?"
Suddenly, the girl's face hardened noticeably.
After thinking about something with a serious expression, she lowered her voice by a tone and spoke.
"Unnie, haven't you heard the rumors?"
"If you mean it might be an Unknown Gate, I've heard."
The girl stared blankly at Eunha, who answered plainly, then tilted her head.
"Just asking to be sure, but what's your rank, Unnie?"
"F-Class."
"Ah. F-Class, then..."
Pause.
"Ugh! F-Claaass?"
The girl's mouth dropped open in disbelief.
The strawberry candy she had been chewing fell out with a thud.
"Ahem! Ahem!"
Throat-clearing sounds were heard from nearby.
Oops. The girl quickly lowered her voice and spoke in a whisper.
"Unnie, no matter how tough reality is and how hard life gets, that's not it."
"The world is still warmer than you think, Unnie."
It seemed a serious misunderstanding had occurred.
The bob-haired girl began earnestly trying to persuade Eunha.
"If you're okay with it, I can listen to your story."
"What's so hard that you'd make such an extreme choice—"
Thwack.
Brushing off the hand gripping and shaking her shoulder, Eunha spoke calmly.
"I'm just looking for someone."
"Someone?"
The girl's eyes widened.
It seemed the misunderstanding had cleared up a bit.
Her voice, much calmer than before, spoke again.
"Okay. Roughly get what you mean. Ah, still... Uuuuhm."
The girl crossed her arms, looking troubled.
After rolling her eyes around, her head snapped up.
"Still wouldn't recommend it. You probably won't even be able to enter anyway?"
"Heard the subjugation rights already went to the Immortal Guild."
"...Immortal Guild?"
"The Monkey King Guild."
"Who's the Monkey King?"
"Huh. Wow."
The girl stared at Eunha as if looking at a zoo monkey.
Do concept hunters not know things like that?
She didn't know the term 'free hunter' earlier either.
They didn't look that different in age, but maybe she just looked incredibly young and was actually quite old.
Thinking that, the girl held up her index finger and said.
"Monkey King Yoo Hwan! He's an S-Class hunter. You don't know that he declared he'd sweep up not only Busan but all the Gyeongnam region burst gates?"
...Now that she mentioned it, she thought she might have seen such an article.
"Given that an S-Class stepped up, and the auction didn't proceed, the possibility of it being a real Unknown Gate is super high, you see."
"It doesn't matter."
"No, Unnie, are you even listening to me? I said the subjugation rights were transferred? They'll probably start the raid tomorrow morning?"
At her words, Eunha paused in thought for a moment.
Her face wasn't particularly serious.
Stroking her chin a couple of times, Eunha spoke detachedly.
"Then I just need to go in before that."
"...What?"
Suddenly, the girl froze stiffly.
But only for a moment.
"Ahahaha! You're a really funny Unnie."
Finding something incredibly amusing, she slapped the seat in front of her, bursting into laughter.
"Student, don't you know etiquette, etiquette?!"
Finally losing patience, the passenger in the front seat snapped.
Only then did the girl gasp, "Hup," cover her mouth, and—
"Sowwy."
—smiled sheepishly.
Strangely enough, seeing that made Eunha's own lips loosen naturally.
Though loud and hyper, the girl had a charm that made it somehow impossible to dislike her.
Years ago... no, thirty-odd years ago, when Eunha was in high school, there was a classmate of that type in her class.
Her grades weren't great, and she was hyperactive, but she was the class mood-maker and always surrounded by many people.
If Eunha had met this girl back in her high school days, perhaps they could have become good friends.
「Our train will soon arrive at Busan Station. Thank you to all our customers for using KTX today. We will soon be arriving at Busan Station──.」
Time passed, and they finally arrived at Busan Station.
Eunha grabbed her parasol and stood up from her seat.
The bob-haired girl did the same.
Zip.
Putting on the bomber jacket she had taken off and zipping it up to her chin, she glanced at Eunha.
"Unnie, are you really going? You sure you don't want to reconsider?"
She seemed quite worried about this fearless F-Class concept hunter.
Of course, Eunha's decision remained unchanged.
"I'm going."
At the firm answer, the girl let out a short "Hmm," seemed to ponder something intently, and finally, snap! lifted her head.
"Well, it's not my place to stop you."
"Still, since this is fate, I'll give you one tip."
Until just before getting off the train, the girl trotted behind Eunha.
"Just in case you run into the Immortal Guild, absolutely do not fight them. Absolutely, absolutely not."
"Especially be careful of the hairy old man. Okay?"
What came out of her mouth wasn't a tip about the Unknown Gate.
Fight? Hairy old man?
As Eunha slowly turned her head at the nonsensical advice—
"Well then, bye-bye!"
Her fading voice, melting into the air, was buried among the footsteps of the crowd.
The bob-haired girl was already gone.
Flutter—
Only a crumpled candy wrapper drifted down from the air.
