Chapter 15
Seol Ga-hyeon looked down at the badger sculpture filling both her hands.
It almost felt as though her palms had become a little burrow, cradling the badger inside.
The colorless badger looked strangely alive.
So alive that it made her imagine a quiet little burrow somewhere deep in the mountains.
That image reminded her of the first time she'd joined the guild and seen the enormous tree.
The same tree now standing solidly behind her.
It feels close to nature.
Even when she wandered around the first floor drowning in guilt, she often stayed close to that tree.
No matter how guilty she felt or how much she wanted to punish herself, nobody truly enjoyed suffering.
Of course she wanted to stop hurting.
She wanted to be happy too.
But reality wouldn't allow that for many reasons.
So she naturally sought out a tree where she could hide herself, even if only a little.
Maybe I keep looking for the lobby tree because it reminds me of Guild Master Yoon Jamok.
The thought that began with the little badger and led to nature soon reached the person who reminded her of a tree, all within the span of a few blinks.
When Seol Ga-hyeon first awakened, Yoon Jamok was already Guild Master Yoon Jamok.
A giant of South Korea's Hunter industry.
A hero from the Gate Era, before anyone called it the Hunter Era.
And a successful businesswoman.
Compared to Seol Ga-hyeon, who had been young and clumsy in every way, Yoon Jamok had seemed perfect.
And because of that, emotionally distant.
Given the nature of Seol Ga-hyeon's awakened skill, there had even been a time when she thought they might never work together in their entire lives.
But just as her expectations always seemed to go wrong, so did that one.
"Hey, do you need help?"
It was during the period when she was being condemned by bereaved families and couldn't even hide at home because of pressure from the media.
She had been standing blankly in front of a Gate that had practically been assigned to her by force.
That was when Yoon Jamok came striding toward her with long steps.
At first, Seol Ga-hyeon thought the help she was offering would be related to clearing the Gate.
After all, Seol Ga-hyeon was a newly awakened Hunter with a total stat sum of only thirty.
It was her first Gate clear.
Her first time facing monsters.
She had never properly used her skill before.
She hadn't even had the chance to seriously study it.
She didn't know what she could do.
Or what she couldn't.
She was a complete beginner.
And yet, simply because she possessed an S-Class offensive skill, because that skill happened to be Necromancer, and because she had no guild protecting her...
She had been brought here as a Hunter.
An outsider.
At the scene, Seol Ga-hyeon truly had been an outsider.
The Association official had told her,
"We placed you somewhere with plenty of high-ranking Hunters."
But that also meant they'd placed her inside a high-ranking Gate.
Not just the experienced Hunters, but every high-ranking Hunter present knew Seol Ga-hyeon would be useless.
At that moment, she was undeniably dead weight.
So when an experienced Hunter with an A-Class license like Yoon Jamok offered to help, naturally Seol Ga-hyeon thought of things like Gate-clearing techniques or advice on using her skill.
Instead, Yoon Jamok offered something more fundamental.
"I heard the Association is doing something underhanded again. Hmm. If you need help from an adult, call this number after we're done with this Gate."
It was the first genuine kindness Seol Ga-hyeon had received since awakening.
She looked so bright.
At that exact moment, the sun emerged from behind the clouds.
Seol Ga-hyeon had genuinely thought the beam of sunlight was shining specifically on Yoon Jamok.
Ridiculous as it sounded.
She truly had.
From that moment until now, after following Yoon Jamok into Badger Guild...
Yoon Jamok had always been like a huge, solid tree in Seol Ga-hyeon's heart.
A tree she could always lean against.
One so enormous that supporting one person like her wouldn't even make it tremble.
And yet, paradoxically, it was also something so precious that she couldn't bring herself to touch it freely.
That was one of the many reasons Seol Ga-hyeon was suffering now.
No matter how much she thought of Guild Master Yoon Jamok as a vast, sturdy tree, Yoon Jamok wasn't actually one.
Even trees eventually fell if struck by an axe enough times.
And Yoon Jamok had a body far more fragile than wood.
She was human.
Seol Ga-hyeon was sick of her own situation never improving no matter how much kindness Yoon Jamok showed her.
She was angry at herself for harming Yoon Jamok and all the people who loved and followed her.
The life she'd spent being a good child was screaming inside her.
And at the same time, the words good child wrapped around her ankles like chains, leaving her unable to move in front of the protesters or even her own guild members.
Seol Ga-hyeon summarized all of those problems in one sentence.
"People are just... exhausting."
The sculptor she'd met for the first time today kept his eyes on the badger resting comfortably in her hands.
He never raised them to look at her face.
He sipped his coffee and gave a lazy little nod.
His expression looked almost indifferent, as though he were only half-listening.
Strangely, that made her chest feel lighter.
Come to think of it, he was the same when he gave me this badger.
He suddenly carved something this incredible right in front of her.
Then placed it in her hands and demanded,
I've already paid you, so answer me.
For a moment, she'd been dumbfounded.
But somehow, that made it easier to say something.
He's a strange person.
Were artists all like this?
Her mouth naturally opened.
She continued talking.
The feelings she'd kept buried inside began stirring as though they wanted to come out.
Slurp.
I took a deep sip of coffee and thought.
Is she the type who feels guilt more strongly than other people?
There were people like that.
People who suffered because they felt more guilt than everyone else.
The more we talked, the clearer the situation became in my head.
Even now, I could faintly hear the protesters shouting outside.
The building must have been extremely well insulated because the sound was quiet, and the protesters never entered the guild itself.
But Seol Ga-hyeon was an S-Class Hunter.
Even this tiny amount of noise probably sounded loud to her.
And despite that, she'd apparently been sitting by this tree the whole time.
Worrying about the guild members who had to push through those protesters just to enter the building.
She's pretty different from me.
A lot different, actually.
There were people you could understand logically without truly relating to them.
Seol Ga-hyeon was exactly that kind of person for me.
I'd never really been a good child.
Still, that didn't mean I disliked people like her.
So I spoke.
"None of that sounds like your fault. Wouldn't it be okay for you to be a little more shameless? I think the other guild members probably wish you'd be more shameless too."
"That... there's no way."
Her fingers tightened around the badger.
Then suddenly relaxed.
The sculpture wobbled anxiously in her palm.
It almost looked like Seol Ga-hyeon's inner self.
A little badger unable to rest comfortably.
"Sometimes an outsider can see things more clearly."
"..."
"If you don't believe me, ask the people around you. Just once."
Seol Ga-hyeon didn't answer.
Still, she was holding the badger a little more securely than before.
The public image of S-Class Hunters, especially those who awakened with S-Class skills from the beginning, is usually that they're pretty independent.
People commonly called them true S-Classes.
Hunters who started with an S-Class awakened skill.
People who quickly climbed through the ranks and acted as though they'd been born to become S-Class Hunters.
Even people like me, who didn't actually have an S-Class Hunter license but possessed an S-Class awakened skill, sometimes got described as,
Well, technically they're a true S-Class, but...
With an extra explanation attached.
Anyway, the world had a stereotype about those true S-Classes.
In South Korea, it had started with Shin Ha-gyeon.
You could practically say the stereotype had grown alongside the history of Gates themselves.
Then the Glory Guild master appeared and strengthened that image.
And after global communications recovered and South Korea reconnected with the outside world, the world's various true S-Classes finished establishing it.
They were all strange in one way or another.
And perhaps because they'd been born overwhelmingly strong, they all seemed to share one thing.
They didn't care much about what other people thought.
That was why, before meeting Seol Ga-hyeon in person, I'd assumed she would be the same.
She was also a true S-Class who had earned an S-Class Hunter license extremely quickly.
If I hadn't seen her getting her hair pulled by protesters, I probably would've assumed that gloomy atmosphere radiating from her was simply her natural personality.
This should be enough.
I'd said everything I could reasonably say to someone I'd only met today.
Whether she changed or not was up to her.
It was getting late.
I should probably head home soon too.
So I deliberately changed the subject.
"Ah, come to think of it, we're the same age. Want to speak casually?"
"What?"
"If you don't want to, that's fine. But we've met now, so..."
"Uh..."
"Honestly, I'm a rookie Hunter. I've kind of wanted a friend in the industry."
