-Shhhhhh……….
-Splutter splutter splutter.
"……Haaaaaah……."
Lee Ji-woo had washed her face with lukewarm water, stepped out of the bathroom, and was shuffling her way back to the bedroom.
Kim A-rin watched her older sister, eyes already half-shut, looking like she could drop off at any second.
But as sorry as she felt for her sister in that state, Kim A-rin had to ask for just a little of her time.
"Ji-woo. Would it be okay if we talked for just a minute before you sleep?"
"Mmm……?"
The only ones who had gone out today were Ji-woo and Erdi.
Since only the two of them had been invited to meet Princess Elicia, Kim A-rin had stayed at the mansion waiting for her sister to come home.
As it happened, though, a Gate had appeared near the restaurant where Ji-woo was having dinner.
And the ones who ended up closing that Gate were, of all people, Erdi and Arkiel.
"Can you give me even a quick rundown? What happened out there today."
Since Kim A-rin had no idea what Ji-woo had been through, she wanted to hear at least a brief account from her.
If it had just been Ji-woo alone, maybe it wouldn't matter — but today she'd spent the whole day with Princess Elicia.
There could be all sorts of complications involving the British royal family, so she wanted to get a clear picture of what had happened first.
"Would it be okay if my senior listened in too?"
"Senior……? …Who……?"
"Do-a. The Haetae Guild master. She needs to know too."
"Mmm, sure……. Okay then…."
Ji-woo nodded along with a blank look on her face.
Kim A-rin quickly placed a video call to Yoo Do-a back in Korea.
Her plan was to fill Do-a and the Haetae Guild in on what they needed to know, then get Ji-woo to bed.
"Do-a. Can you see Ji-woo okay?"
[ Yeah. I can see her fine, but…… ]
-Blink blink.
-Blink blink.
"Heyyyy, Ji-woo……."
[ …Ji-woo looks really sleepy right now. Are you okay, Ji-woo? Can you handle a call? ]
"…Yeahhh…."
And so, Ji-woo began telling Yoo Do-a, through the tablet screen, about this and that.
Starting from when she first met Princess Elicia at Windsor Castle — an absolutely enormous place — and how she'd also said hello to the wolf summon, Lukar.
Then how she and Elicia had gone to the castle's drawing room together, eaten fresh fruit, and chatted away.
"Hehe, I'm mutually following Elicia on Instagram now…. Jealous, aren't you…!"
[ Mutually following…? Did you two get pretty close? ]
"Mmm……. Not super close, more like… decently close, I think…. …Oh, right. We're also going to film an ad together."
Ji-woo mentioned that at Elicia's suggestion, they'd agreed to shoot a Beverly autumn campaign together.
Yoo Do-a was more than a little surprised by that, but there were more pressing matters at hand.
She decided to ask Ji-woo about the ad tomorrow morning once she was up, and moved on to asking about the new Gate that had apparently appeared in London.
That was the most urgent thing right now.
[ I heard a Gate appeared near where you were, Ji-woo…. You weren't hurt, were you? ]
"No…. I'm totally fine…… …But I didn't get my dessert……! And I almost didn't get my steak either!"
[ De, dessert? Steak? ]
"I mean, we were in the middle of eating with Elicia and then — wee-woo wee-woo…! …The chef and the waiters just abandoned their guests and ran off. And the guest was royalty…."
She sounded genuinely aggrieved.
Eyes just slightly narrowed in irritation, Ji-woo rambled on about what had happened earlier.
Like she was venting to Yoo Do-a.
"So when the Gate suddenly showed up, I told Erdi — you little — go handle it, and sent her off."
[ Erdi…. You mean that mouse girl? ]
"M, mouse — don't call her that, Erdi gets mad! And right now she's an adult…. Wait, no, she went back to being tiny again."
Erdi, acting on Ji-woo's orders, and Arkiel, who had sensed the energy of the newly appeared Gate —
Two summons in total had rushed to the scene and taken down all the monsters.
In the end, no one was killed or injured, and the Gate had already lost its power and vanished — but.
"My mille-feuille vanished with it…. …I was so curious what it tasted like."
Gate or no Gate, she'd ended up missing her dessert and missing her walk with Elicia.
Ji-woo pouted and declared that the Gate that had shown up this time had absolutely no sense of timing.
[ So, Ji-woo, you stayed in the restaurant the whole time? ]
"Yes. I was with Elicia the whole time…."
[ Mm…. Okay, got it. ]
By that point, Ji-woo was completely out of it.
If Yoo Do-a hadn't kept talking to her, it wouldn't have been strange for her to fall asleep right then and there.
But there was something that had to be said before Ji-woo drifted off.
Something Ji-woo, above anyone else, absolutely needed to know.
[ Ji-woo. About M.M.L.I. ]
"Wanna-be-dried… no, what about M.M.L.I…?"
[ Haetae and M.M.L.I are going to enter into a contract. Think of it as an external mercenary contract. ]
"…I'm not really sure what that means…."
[ So, basically… M.M.L.I is going to keep supporting our guild going forward. From now on, you'll be clearing Dungeons together and things like that. ]
In short, Ji-woo's summons, who belonged to M.M.L.I, would be operating as mercenaries hired by the Haetae Guild from here on out.
They'd still be part of M.M.L.I, but they'd be treated the same as Haetae Guild's own Hunters.
Like Haetae's Hunters, they could form raid parties to tackle Gates, or join Haetae Guild's raid teams for Dungeon clears.
Yoo Do-a explained it that way, then added that she was counting on them going forward.
[ Administratively, Erdi is the representative of M.M.L.I, but… they're your summons at the end of the day. The summons only deploy when you give the order, right? ]
"…Hehe. That's true."
[ It's shameless of me to ask, but I think we're going to be in your debt for a while. M.M.L.I is an incredibly powerful force. ]
Still, proper compensation and rewards would be paid, Yoo Do-a calmly explained to Ji-woo.
But Ji-woo had something else on her mind that mattered more.
The fact that she herself could now operate as a proper summon-type Hunter.
"So then, like — I could go out there and be all like… M.M.L.I is here, everyone can relax now! That kind of thing…?"
[ Ah, probably…? There aren't many people left who don't know what M.M.L.I is by now. ]
"…Heheh…."
Ji-woo's real name and face wouldn't be going public anytime soon, but her alias, M.M.L.I, was about to attract enormous attention.
Thinking about what M.M.L.I actually stood for, it was maybe a little… underwhelming (?) — but still.
She was now a proper Hunter in her own right, capable of wielding tremendous influence.
With Ji-woo's M.M.L.I, probably no Dungeon would be too difficult to clear.
And naturally, the fame and prestige would only keep growing.
M.M.L.I might end up being mentioned on the Hunter Wannabe Gallery practically every day.
[ There's a lot more I need to tell you. So come back safely with A-rin. Understood? ]
"…That's a flag, you know…."
[ Hm, that wasn't what I meant by it. ]
Yoo Do-a said Ji-woo would probably be pretty busy once she got back to Korea.
At those words, Ji-woo nodded with a smile and said one last thing.
"But I have one condition……!"
[ A condition? What kind? ]
"From now on, whenever you send Kim A-rin on a business trip or something, you have to send M.M.L.I with her. She can't go alone."
[ …That's your condition? ]
"Yes. Otherwise M.M.L.I is going on strike…. I'm serious, we'll actually strike!"
Kim A-rin had nothing to do with the mercenary contract between Haetae and M.M.L.I, technically speaking.
But as M.M.L.I's hidden top authority and Kim A-rin's family, Ji-woo could not allow Kim A-rin to go on solo trips.
That was what Ji-woo said, expressing her resolve to never let Kim A-rin be put in danger again.
As long as one of Ji-woo's Hidden Bosses was with her, nothing dangerous could happen. Surely.
"O…kay? You understand?"
[ …Well, sure. If that's the condition. ]
"You heard that, Kim A-rin…? From now on, if you ever have a trip coming up, make sure to tell me fir—…. …Mmm…."
And just like that, softly and peacefully.
Unable to fight off sleep any longer, Ji-woo closed her eyes and drifted off to dreamland.
She'd been clinging to consciousness by sheer willpower just to get that condition about Kim A-rin out.
[ Kim A-rin. ]
"…Yeah, Do-a."
[ Your eyes are red. Are you actually moved right now? ]
"……None of your business."
[ Goodness, you must have saved a nation in a past life. How come I don't have a sister like Ji-woo. ]
"You have parents, though."
[ …You just made me completely speechless. What does that make me, then. ]
Without another word, Kim A-rin gently scooped up the sleeping Ji-woo and carried her straight to the bed.
She tucked a soft blanket around Ji-woo, watched her sleep soundly for a quiet moment —
And only after quite some time had passed did she return to the call with Yoo Do-a.
[ By the way, this is a bit unexpected. ]
"What is?"
[ Princess Elicia. I didn't think she'd be that interested in Ji-woo. ]
"…My sister is cute."
[ Well, that's true. Anyway, a Beverly ad. I wonder what that's all about. ]
***
"Ji-woo."
"Yes, Master."
"From what I understand, this advertisement — the prettier you are, the better it performs."
"Mm…. Probably?"
The next morning. I'd just opened my eyes when Erdi started asking me all sorts of things about the Beverly ad.
Advertising was a foreign concept to Erdi, who had spent her existence inside a Dungeon, after all.
Still, being the clever Hidden Boss she was — already knowing how to use a phone — she had a pretty solid grasp of most things.
Except.
"Ji-woo."
"Yes."
"I think you need to stand out more than that princess in the Beverly advertisement."
Erdi was making a rather tall request.
She'd decided I needed to outshine Elicia in the Beverly ad.
That way my Instagram follower count would grow faster, and the odds of landing other ads down the line would go up too.
Ultimately it would help build "Lee Ji-woo" as a recognizable, harmless public figure — that was Erdi's calm, methodical reasoning.
"Mm…. I understand what you're saying."
"But there's a problem."
"A problem? What kind?"
"I'll be honest with you, Ji-woo. Right now, you're less striking than the princess."
"…Elicia is a princess."
It's not like I'm unattractive by any means, but when the comparison is Elicia, I'll admit I come up a little short.
She's a British princess, for starters.
Even I thought she was genuinely beautiful when I saw her — so standing out more than Elicia in a Beverly ad seemed like a pretty tall order.
"…Still, I think we have to try."
"Mm…. How?"
"You'll have to become prettier than you are now."
Erdi said that, then hesitated for a moment —
But in the end, she opened her mouth and spoke.
"…There's someone who specializes in this sort of thing."
"Oh…. Who?"
"It's not exactly my area of expertise. Better to leave this to them."
So — who.
If you don't say the name, I have no idea who you mean.
I couldn't quite say that out loud, so I just glanced at Erdi and tried to think about who she might be referring to.
"Summon that fox spirit. Right now."
"Hwaran?"
"…Yes."
Erdi had gone ahead and told me it was Hwaran.
And so, I immediately opened my skill window.
"Mm…. Summon Hwaran."
And summoned Hwaran right then and there.
-Ding.
【Individual: Hwaran has accepted Individual: Lee Ji-woo's request.】
【Current Rank: null → SSS】
Step. A familiar face appeared before Erdi and me, just like that.
Erdi, squinting at the new arrival, turned to me and outright ignored Hwaran entirely, asking why I'd called.
"Oh? And what matter requires this one's assistance, child?"
"Ah, well, Hwaran—"
.
.
.
.
"Mm…. Could you make me look more beautiful than that princess?"
"Yes."
"Oh, now that stirs my interest."
Thankfully, Hwaran agreed to help.
She was a nine-tailed fox, after all. She probably knew some kind of beauty-enhancing spell or something.
"Well then, let us first take a stroll."
"Hm?"
But Hwaran said we should start by exploring the area, and asked me to show her around London.
Her outfit had already shifted in an instant from a hanbok to something that fit right into the twenty-first century.
Erdi had done the same thing before — popped into a suit out of nowhere — so I guess Hidden Bosses can just swap their clothes whenever they want.
"For this one to step out into the human world…. It has truly been a long, long time."
"The standards of beauty that humans hold may have shifted from what this one knows."
"Mm…."
"What you must match is not this one's standard, but the standard of humans. So first, we must observe them."
…Judging by how she'd dressed herself, I'd have thought she already had a pretty good idea.
But since Hwaran herself said she needed to get a feel for twenty-first century fashion first, I decided to walk around London with her.
Maybe stop by a department store if we had time.
"Leave that chattering little rat behind. Just the two of us."
"…I ought to pluck out every last one of those tails to knock some sense into her."
"S, stop. Stop fighting."
With Hwaran and Erdi squaring off, I quickly grabbed Hwaran and fled out of the mansion.
If two Hidden Bosses actually came to blows, I was pretty sure the mansion — and everything in it — would be reduced to dust.
And my bank account along with it.
That, above all else, was absolutely not happening……!
"Um, Hwaran."
"What is it."
"If you don't fight with Erdi, I'll tell you a new story. So no bickering."
"A new… story? What kind?"
"…Have you ever heard of Fullmetal Alchemist?"
"No. That is a new one to me."
"If you don't fight with Erdi, I'll tell you all about it. I think you'll enjoy it."
