Thousand Swords (1)
I was momentarily flustered by Baek Hojun's sudden appearance.
Thinking about it, it was natural for Baek Hojun to be here since he too got caught up in that quasi-landslide with us, but I just hadn't noticed due to the shock from the sight Shin Ah-yeon showed earlier.
"I was just checking if anyone was hurt."
Of course, I couldn't exactly say that I tried to take her clothes off to check her back, so I could only make a vague excuse.
'Well, I can just ask her directly later anyway.'
It wasn't something to rush into, but it was something that kept bothering me.
"Ah, I see. But... who is the girl in Shin Ah-yeon-nim's arms?"
Baek Hojun asked while looking at the now-young Ji Yeon-hwa, who was resting in Shin Ah-yeon's embrace.
The girl was not only physically younger but also had hair that had turned completely white, and her skin had darkened as if suntanned, so he clearly didn't recognize that she was the same person.
"I believe she's probably Hunter Ji Yeon-hwa. I don't know the details, but it seems Shin Ah-yeon-nim did something."
"Wh-what? Th-this child is Hunter Ji Yeon-hwa?"
"I could sense the same flow of magic power."
Just in case, I had checked several times.
Even though her appearance had changed, this girl was indeed the Ji Yeon-hwa who had turned into a half-demon.
After sensing Ji Yeon-hwa's magic power reaction for a moment, Jung-woo nodded.
He seemed to be confirming once again that what I said was true.
"You... can sense magic power? You don't look like an Awakener, though."
"Well, it's something like a constitution. Acquired, not innate."
"I see."
Baek Hojun had a pensive look at my words.
Seeing his expression, he seemed to think that I had gone through some kind of misfortune and gained a special ability.
The funny thing was, he wasn't wrong.
"I suppose I was being nosy."
"No, it's understandable. By the way, Baek Hojun-nim. May I ask you something as well?"
"Yes. By all means."
"Then... this situation—the current state of things—was it your doing, Baek Hojun-nim?"
I glanced around the dim surroundings before turning my gaze upwards.
Where we were now was a small cavern, roughly hewn and rather messy.
From the ceiling to the walls, everything was smoothly rounded, as if a round ball had been sliced in half and placed over us.
"Yes. I overdid it a bit. But I had no choice if I wanted to save everyone."
Baek Hojun smiled, raising his battered hands.
The shockwave caused by Ji Yeon-hwa's power flipping the land over had shaken Mount Seorak greatly.
The upheaved earth had nearly swallowed us like a landslide, and ordinarily we should have been buried alive.
Baek Hojun blocked all that with a single sword.
'So this is what it means to be one of only five S-rank Hunters in Korea.'
Blade Master, the man known as Thousand Swords.
If Baek Hojun hadn't intervened in that mess, I would've had quite the hard time as well.
'To cut through all that falling earth and rock, clearing a space... That's insane.'
And he did this after fighting Ji Yeon-hwa.
Truly, even in that other world, someone on the S-rank level would be among the highest of the high.
Strong is strong, no matter the world.
'Even over there, I've never seen swordsmanship this solid.'
Early thirties.
For an S-rank Hunter, a youthful age—honestly, I thought Baek Hojun was the same kind as Soo-ah.
But in person, Baek Hojun was the complete opposite of Soo-ah.
If Soo-ah was a genius swordswoman who fought by instinct, Baek Hojun was a hard-working swordsman who trained his fundamentals to the extreme.
'But can you really call someone who made S-rank in their early thirties a "hard-working" type?'
Reaching S-rank in your early thirties was near impossible unless you had true talent.
Not just on Earth, but in the other world as well.
"Anyway, if this girl is Hunter Ji Yeon-hwa, things are about to get crazy."
The other Hunters participating in the mission, barring Ju Ji-sang, probably didn't even know exactly what had happened.
But others did.
Especially the film crew—they saw everything through the cameras stationed all over the mountain: the rampaging Ji Yeon-hwa.
"Knowing Producer Do's personality, he won't just sweep this under the rug. It'll be hard for Ji Yeon-hwa to act under her own name anymore."
"Yes, I completely agree. In that sense, maybe it's for the best her appearance changed."
He said so while glancing at Shin Ah-yeon and the Ji Yeon-hwa nestled in her arms.
"To be honest, I'm just glad Hunter Ji Yeon-hwa survived."
He murmured almost to himself, voice quiet.
His gaze lingered briefly on sleeping Shin Ah-yeon, like he was looking at something far away.
"This might be embarrassing to say, but what Ji Yeon-hwa told me then... it actually meant something."
"You mean the feelings she had for Shin Ah-yeon-nim?"
"Oh, was it obvious? I thought I hid it well enough."
He let out a rueful, bitter laugh.
"Manager Park, what do you think of me?"
"I think you're impressive."
"Because I'm an S-rank Hunter?"
Blade Master Baek Hojun.
One of only five S-rank Hunters in Korea, and a man who divided the world of Korean swordsmen with the Sword King.
Anyone who saw him would naturally find him impressive.
And I was no exception.
It was just that my impression was a little different.
"It's impossible to estimate how much effort you put in."
"...!"
His eyes went wide as if genuinely surprised by my words.
I chuckled at his speechless expression.
"But, more importantly, Baek Hojun-nim."
"Ah, yes. Yes!"
He replied absent-mindedly, so I pointed upward with my finger.
"Anyway, I think it's about time we make our way out."
"What? You mean... We're leaving now?"
"Time's almost up, you see."
I checked my wristwatch for the rough time.
Eight hours had already passed since the third mission began.
Given that the total time was ten hours, there were two hours left.
If we didn't hurry, we wouldn't make it to the destination in time.
"Hence, before we go—"
Once we left here, I likely wouldn't have another chance to talk to Baek Hojun like this.
So before we went, I decided to give him a small gift, in return for all his help with this incident.
"Let's chat for a minute."
That way, Soo-ah's debut stage could be all the more spectacular.
***
"Huff, huff..."
One of the rescue team Hunters climbing Mount Seorak wiped sweat from his brow and exhaled heavily.
With part of Mount Seorak's beautiful scenery destroyed and collapsed, it was hard to guess what on earth had happened here.
"Hunter Ji Yeon-hwa did this?"
"Producer Do said so... but other staff said it was different."
"Even as a former Hunter myself, I can't imagine a person doing something like this."
The place where Ji Yeon-hwa, Baek Hojun, and Shin Ah-yeon had fought.
As soon as things settled down, producer Do had sent a rescue team, having seen the disaster via the mountain's surveillance cameras.
That was because he hadn't received any contact from Baek Hojun or the others.
"If we look at the last footage from the cameras, it should be down around here..."
The rescue team leader checked the camera footage once more.
Transformed as if into a demon, Ji Yeon-hwa screamed, the earth erupted as if exploding, and part of the mountain rose up, swallowing them like a massive dragon's mouth.
The footage cut out as the mountain collapsed, but it was obvious this was the area where it happened.
"It's here!! There are strange traces here!"
"Strange traces?"
Climbing down the mountain and following the call, about mid-slope, they found the odd mark mentioned.
But was it really right to call this a "mark"?
"Wh-what is this..."
Just like in the camera footage, the earth had been heaved up and piled, forming an unnatural mound.
A small mountain made only of rocks and dirt where all the trees had disappeared.
If a human had been buried here, there's no way they could have survived.
Not even an S-rank, no matter how superhuman.
And yet—
"... A cave?"
A massive hole had opened.
A passage, clearly "artificially" made, leading to the center of the small mountain.
"Boss, there are footprints here. Looks like someone walked out?"
"What? Wait, really?"
Within the traces where countless rocks had been crushed and ground away, footprints of several people could be seen.
Judging by the number, two or three?
The deep impressions suggested someone heavy, or carrying another.
"No way."
The team leader had a hypothesis.
'They broke through and walked out from inside?'
All before the rescue team even arrived.
Seeing the enormous multi-meter wide hole and the long passage leading out, the rescue team leader was left speechless.
***
"Looks like something happened on the mountain?"
"Yeah, they told us to hurry down, so I didn't collect as many bells as I wanted."
"Hey, Ju Ji-sang. You were the last one out. Did you hear anything?"
At the mountain's exit point, the Hunters were crowded together.
They had just finished the third mission and gathered at the end point.
"... I don't know."
Ju Ji-sang kept his mouth shut, having already been warned by Producer Do.
And he had no intention of saying anything anyway.
'Ji Yeon-hwa was there too.'
Ji Yeon-hwa, who'd usually treat him harshly, had seemed odd that time.
The round, black jewel embedded in her forehead, her urgent-looking face, the weird gaze that seemed to look past him, as if seeing something else.
Unable to fight properly against the clearly berserk Ji Yeon-hwa, Ju Ji-sang had been unable even to run.
Her shadow grasped his ankle, and the overwhelming force exuding from her whole body made it hard to breathe.
And then Lee Soo-ah had saved him.
She severed the shadow clutching his ankle with a sword wreathed in blue flames.
'I didn't do anything.'
Lee Soo-ah had even gone on to fight, alongside Baek Hojun and Shin Ah-yeon, against Ji Yeon-hwa.
Ju Ji-sang had seen it all as he fled.
Of course, she hadn't done anything remarkable.
She'd only endured.
But that alone was enough for Ju Ji-sang to realize how extraordinary it was.
To withstand a battle among S-rank Hunters.
'She's not C-rank, not at all.'
The scene she'd shown when taking down the golem in the first mission.
And the potential Lee Soo-ah revealed in this incident were never below Ju Ji-sang himself.
Rather, she seemed far above.
Even compared to himself, once titled the Sword King's disciple.
"Alright, everyone look over here."
Then Producer Do stepped through the Hunters and clapped, as if to gather their attention.
"With Hunter Baek Hojun temporarily unavailable, I'll be wrapping up today's filming in his place."
He surveyed the assembled Hunters.
Not everyone had made it down from the mountain yet, but most of the notable Hunters had arrived.
"There are five minutes left until the end of the third mission. Unfortunately, any bells not collected and delivered within the time limit won't be counted for points."
He struggled to keep a neutral expression as he spoke, but it was clear he was in a bad mood.
'Why did something like this have to happen on my show?'
What Ji Yeon-hwa had done wasn't something Producer Do could handle on his own.
If it were just a hot topic, maybe, but this case involved three Hunters at the level of S-rank.
Soon-to-be S-rank Ji Yeon-hwa, Korea's top swordsman Baek Hojun.
And Shin Ah-yeon, the former great mage and recent center of attention.
He'd just seen footage of the three of them being buried by the mountain.
Honestly, he could barely keep it together.
'Did Lee Soo-ah fail to arrive?'
Normally, this would have been great news.
The Villain Lee Soo-ah getting disqualified here would make sense.
Otherwise, if she took up any more screentime, it would push out the 'main' Hunters Producer Do had planned for center stage.
'I miscalculated.'
But the image of Lee Soo-ah confronting Ji Yeon-hwa was engraved in his mind.
The way she fought could not be dismissed as just a villain.
Who could have predicted she'd survive Ji Yeon-hwa's rampage?
'But Ji Yeon-hwa... ha, what happened? She must be alive, right?'
If Ji Yeon-hwa had died during the Super Hunter Camp...
That alone would be enough to cancel the whole show.
And if Baek Hojun had gotten caught in the same incident—
Producer Do felt like abandoning the wrap-up for the third mission and running back up the mountain to see how the rescue was going.
"No, producer Do. That's my job, so you can leave it to me."
Just then, a familiar voice reached Producer Do, who'd been biting his lower lip.
He turned, and there, despite some injuries, was Baek Hojun, walking calmly toward them.
"Hunter Baek Hojun, you're safe!! And..."
He wasn't alone.
Behind him came Ji Yeon-hwa and that cheeky manager as well.
"The third mission's not over yet, right?"
The guy walked right up and showed off a ton of bells, as if to rub it in.
-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】