As I followed Min-ji down the corridor, she glanced at my expression and carefully ventured a few questions.
"Um, Shin-a… is the guild master your mother?"
"No…?"
"Oh…? Ah… I see, she's not. Sorry, that was a silly thing to ask."
Min-ji trailed off, visibly flustered.
I added the fact without any particular feeling.
"I don't have a mom."
"Hm?"
My offhand self-deprecation brought her to a dead stop.
She looked at me with wide eyes, then couldn't seem to find anywhere to put her gaze — it drifted here and there before she finally dropped her head.
After that, a heavy silence filled the corridor for a while.
Hmm.
Too blunt again, probably.
I'd only been stating a fact, but apparently the delivery was too dry.
We pushed through the awkward air and finally reached our destination.
"How much do you know about hunters and gates, Shin-a?"
Min-ji asked in a bright voice, clearly trying to shift the mood.
"A fair amount."
"Right, kids these days learn all of it in school. I guess you picked it up there too?"
"I've never actually been to school…"
"Oh, ha ha…! Um… I see."
Min-ji's shoulders drooped again.
Every question she asked kept missing the mark, and she was starting to look like she might actually cry.
She cleared her throat a few times to collect herself, then slipped back into a professional manner and began her explanation.
"Since you said you already know a fair amount, I'll keep it brief."
Her finger traced across a world map hanging on the wall.
"Sixty years ago, gates suddenly began appearing all over the earth. At the same time, Awakened individuals capable of fighting them emerged. That chaotic period — from sixty years ago to fifty years ago — the first-generation hunters of that era threw themselves into gates with no information at all, burning themselves out to protect the world. A great many of them died, and nearly all of them have retired now. Well — all except one."
A flicker of reverence crossed Min-ji's eyes.
"After that, national functions gradually recovered. Alongside that, information and systems around hunters and gates began to take shape. Gate and hunter rankings, monster ecology, mana theory, and so on… Do you know how gate and hunter ranks are determined, Shin-a?"
I recited what I already knew.
"A gate's rank is determined by the measured value of the mana waves it emits. And an Awakened who can clear a gate of that rank solo within a set time is called a hunter of that rank."
"You really do know your stuff, Shin-a. That's right. F-rank through S-rank. Though lately the Association has been moving to ban solo clears. So the examination method for determining hunter ranks has changed a bit."
"I see."
That was news to me — it had been a while since I'd sat for any rank assessment.
"These days there are dedicated devices for measuring hunters too. Those get used as well. They're not perfectly accurate, of course, but they have some discriminating power, I think."
"……Isn't there one more rank?"
My question made Min-ji's eyes widen slightly.
"You really do know a lot, Shin-a. That's right. About three years ago, there was a gate that existing equipment couldn't measure at all."
Her voice dropped a little.
"A zero-rank gate. Hunter Kim Shin-woo and our guild master both went into that gate personally."
"……"
"It's because of them that we're all here right now. If that gate hadn't been cleared…"
"It would have been horrific."
My answer drew a faint smile from her.
"Ahaha… Maybe that's too grim a story to tell a kid?"
"No, I found it interesting."
It had been grueling work, but meaningful too. Hearing someone else recount that era gave me a strange, fresh feeling — like seeing an old scar from a new angle.
And so I followed her through the rest of the building.
Eventually she stopped in front of a door and said:
"This is the research lab. It's a bit small, but… Oh. Since we're here, would you like to try that measurement I mentioned earlier?"
"Measurement… ?"
"Yeah. You said you're Awakened, right? It's fine to do it just for fun."
"Hmm…"
I briefly pictured myself standing in front of a measuring device.
This body used to be S-rank, after all.
It might come out a bit lower right now, but…
At the very least… C-rank to B-rank, surely.
But if it came out that high…?
My retirement would drift very, very far away…
"……"
"Shin-a?"
"Ah… no, I'd rather not…"
"Hm? Really…?"
When I declined, Min-ji tilted her head.
'Kids her age are usually dying to try this… Ah… Maybe she's embarrassed to show the result?'
Min-ji carefully composed herself.
"Hey, Shin-a…"
"Yes…?"
"I won't look. You can go in and do it by yourself. It won't be recorded either, so don't worry."
Her considerate expression made me hesitate for a moment before I nodded.
"In that case… I'll give it a try."
I stepped into the measurement room.
Honestly, I was curious…
I looked the machine over from every angle.
The device, covered in various numbers, looked fairly complex. Min-ji operated it here and there, then explained it to me.
"Press this button and the measurement will start."
Once she finished the setup, she turned her back as promised and stepped away.
I quietly steadied my breathing and stood before the device.
The cold metal plate gleamed smoothly under the lights.
I slowly placed my hand over the handprint marking that indicated where to press.
Whirrrr—
With a hum, a bluish light began to swirl inside the device.
A faint vibration traveled through my palm.
The mana inside my body met the machine's wavelength and responded.
A moment later, numbers began rapidly blinking and climbing across the hologram panel at the top of the machine.
[Measuring... 82%... 95%... 100%]
[Measurement Complete]
A results window appeared with a short chime.
I stared at the figure on the screen.
Then I pulled my hand away with a blank expression.
"I'm… done."
At my voice, Min-ji turned around as if she'd been waiting.
She approached with her eyes narrowed, deliberately looking somewhere else so as not to see the result.
"Great, good work! Did it come out well?"
She pressed the reset button on the side of the machine.
As the screen vanished in an instant, I answered with a slight stammer.
"It's… about what I expected."
"Yeah? As long as you're satisfied, that's what matters."
Apparently relieved that I didn't seem hurt, Min-ji smiled again and guided me out of the lab.
I turned over the number the machine had just spat out in my head.
[F-Rank]
"……"
I called up my Status Window in my mind.
Level, trait levels, and all the various stats.
Not a single one was anything but rock bottom.
This body was genuinely weak.
Still…
But… even so… if I actually told myself to fight, I could fight really well…?
This thing is completely broken…!
No… something's wrong.
Me, F-rank…?
"Shin-a?"
"Ah, it's nothing."
"Hmm…?"
She tilted her head, puzzled by the subtle shift in my expression.
"……"
I'm confident I can fight well, though.
***
We moved on to the next location.
With each step, the air grew gradually heavier and drier.
"Our guild, Red Lotus, has a special place in this building."
"What is it?"
I already knew the answer, but I asked anyway.
"Right here — ta-da!"
She gestured toward a heavy door at the end of the corridor.
"The forge."
A forge, right in the middle of the city, inside a guild building packed with state-of-the-art facilities.
Anyone else would call it absurd — but here, it actually existed.
Beyond the heavy iron door, heat shimmered faintly in the air, seeping through the gap along with a dim red glow.
A forge, with crimson light bleeding through the cracks.
"Ahaha… You have no idea how much effort went into installing a forge in a building like this. Just thinking about it still makes my head spin."
Min-ji pressed a hand to her forehead and shuddered, though her eyes held a quiet pride.
"I can imagine."
"Still, it more than earns its keep. Well — not so much the forge itself, but 'she' is the one pulling her weight."
Min-ji stepped inside, glancing around as if searching for someone.
The fire in the furnace still blazed and crackled, but the forge itself was empty.
"Hmm…? Doesn't look like she's here right now. What a shame."
She kept scanning the area around the empty anvil as she spoke.
She must have meant 'her' — the owner of this forge.
The one who had personally crafted several pieces of my equipment.
I'd wanted to see her face, just once, to know she was doing well…
I felt a pang of disappointment too.
"Shall we head back then? The guild master should be returning soon."
"Yes."
Leaving the disappointment behind, I followed Min-ji back to the office.
***
As we stood before the office door, voices filtered through from the other side.
Then footsteps drew closer—
Click.
The door opened without warning, and someone strode briskly across the corridor and was gone.
A figure I caught clearly even in passing.
Hmm…? That person is…
A familiar face.
Setting that familiarity aside for now, I stepped into the office to find Jang-mi waiting with a gentle smile.
"Oh, Shin-a, you're back?"
"Yes."
She rose from her seat and came toward me, bending down to lightly stroke my hair.
"Shall we head home now? Are you tired?"
Jang-mi met my eyes with a look of concern, took one of my hands firmly in hers, and with the other gathered her bag from the back of her chair.
"Min-ji, you should head out too. Good work today."
"Yes, Guild Master. Shin-a, let's meet again sometime."
She bent toward me as well, giving a small wave as she said goodbye.
"Take care."
***
And so I rode back to Jang-mi's home in her car.
She crossed the entryway and the living room without letting go of my hand, leading me all the way to the master bedroom.
I barely had time to feel puzzled before she dropped her bag onto the bed and—
Hm…?
"W-wait a moment…"
"Hm…? What is it, Shin-a?"
"No, it's just…"
Ignoring my flustered voice entirely, she began peeling off her clothes one layer at a time.
With a soft rustle of fabric, the buttons of her blouse came undone, and her undergarments were laid plainly bare beneath.
She took another step closer to me.
"Ugh…"
I swallowed the sound rising in my throat and had no choice but to lean my head back.
My eyes darted around, not knowing where to look.
"Hm? Ah… our Shin-a is a shy one, aren't you?"
Jang-mi laughed softly at my reaction, clearly amused, and kept removing the rest of her clothes without stopping.
I finally couldn't take it anymore and covered my eyes with both palms.
No matter how long we'd known each other, she was still, plainly, a woman.
The heat rushing to my face was palpable even through my hands.
She was probably in nothing but her underwear by now.
But for some reason she wasn't heading toward the bathroom — she was moving closer to me instead.
"Aren't you going in…? What are you doing…?"
"Hm…? Well, obviously…"
She said it softly.
"Shin-a has to come in too… right?"
"……?"
Huh?