NOVEL NEXT chapter 33
33 – Here and There (2)
This gate was mainly frequented by medium-sized monsters.
Large wolves, eagles, deer, wild boar, and others.
It was a territory of ferocious monsters that were slightly larger than normal animals and several times more fierce.
“F*ck!”
The bodies of the monsters were scattered all around, and the pungent smell of blood vibrated through the field.
Nam Bora grimaced as she looked at the bloodstains on the hem of her pants.
Despite that, she was much more sensitive than usual due to her heightened nervousness.
“Everyone, please step back. Do you roughly know the reason?”
Seo Haneul spoke in a low voice to Nam Bora, who was standing far away.
He wanted to prevent the support team, who came to collect the monsters from getting into a dangerous situation.
“Yes… Thank you.”
“Thank you? I should be the one apologizing. It’s because of the delay in the work.”
“Still… thank you.”
The leader of Support Team 1 thanked Seo Haneul and took a few steps back.
They had decided to finish the job after Nam Bora, covered in blood, left the area.
Not only were they stressed by Nam Bora’s hysteria, but they also didn’t want to incur any further disadvantages.
“Who should wear the armband?”
Beside her, This Summer quietly asked, shoulder to shoulder.
In the end, someone had to take Nam Bora and calm her down, but neither of them wanted to do it.
So, they had to choose someone to be sacrificed, or, in other words, to carry the armband.
There were only two people considered capable of taking on that role.
“Shall we decide with rock-paper-scissors?”
“That sounds good.”
Both of them looked ahead and whispered rock-paper-scissors.
Seo Ha-neul put out scissors with her left hand, while This Summer put out paper with her right hand.
This Summer lost.
“Is this… right?”
This Summer, who would become the sacrifice, asked in surprise.
It was fine for her to go, but she was worried that it might cause friction with Nam Bora if she became too hot-tempered.
“It’s okay. If it doesn’t work out, come back after fighting it out.”
“Hey… is that really what you should say? That’s a bit too much.”
“Stooping down to someone who doesn’t matter, even if they’re unpleasant, is more stressful.”
There is some truth to that.
This Summer, as if she had no room for rebuttal, nodded silently.
Seo Ha-neul hoped that this would be an opportunity for Nam Bora to take a big dump and retreat from the group.
Even if the team’s strength falters, it will be more comfortable inside and the atmosphere will be much better.
“Ugh.”
Look at that, how ominous.
This Summer swallowed those words and walked towards Nam Bora’s side.
She felt itchy ears from the incessant swearing, but she held back and kept her mouth shut.
“Hey, Nam Bora. Let’s go home. Go wash up quickly. It’s uncomfortable to stay here.”
Even when This Summer quietly approached and spoke to her, Nam Bora seemed to not hear.
She continued cursing and powerfully stomping on the frustrated ground.
“…Damn it, damn it!”
“Hey, Nam Bora!”
Finally, after This Summer frowned and shouted, Nam Bora turned her gaze to the side.
The bloodshot eyes and contorted expression seemed truly ghostly.
In an instant, the thought that she seemed like a ghost from a movie crossed Yeorum’s mind this summer.
“…What?”
When Nam Bora’s sharp voice reached her, Yeorum sighed and spoke.
“You didn’t hear me? Let’s go home. Go home and clean up. If not, use the guild shower.”
“Are you ordering me right now?”
“Jesus.”
Yeorum sighed unconsciously, tapping her forehead.
Her eye-rolling appearance was truly unsettling. In the end, it seemed like she had lost her mind.
Yeorum unconsciously muttered to herself and pulled out the knife she had stuck in her thigh holster.
She concluded that there was no point in trying to resolve things through conversation anymore.
“Fine. After giving you a good beating, let’s cool down your head.”
“What? A beating? You…!”
Yusihu’s cold voice and gaze, who had said she would kill herself.
And the one who had made her like this.
Furthermore, even Yeorum, who showed the same appearance as that one.
Nam Bora, tormented by feelings of inferiority and anger, finally rolled her eyes and shot a shadow at her own team.
Nam Bora’s shadow.
Yeorum’s light. The outcome had already been determined, but the process was not without struggle.
There was still a glimmer of life left in the unconscious Nam Bora’s body, and Yeorum’s cheeks and thigh flesh had been cut quite deeply and significantly.
“You crazy bastard! You really tried to kill me.”
Yeorum sighed while spitting on the ground.
If she hadn’t tried to subdue her gently at first, she wouldn’t have been this injured.
“Thanks for your hard work.”
Seoha Nye, who had been watching from a distance, approached with a red apple in her hand.
The support team, which had briefly stopped working, was once again busy collecting the corpses of the monsters.
“Hey, you could help a bit too, you know?”
Yeorum reached for the red fruit held in Seoha Nye’s hand, peeling it and chewing on it.
Surprisingly, Yeorum’s wounds on her body began to heal very cleanly.
As if there had never been any injuries in the first place.
“I’m sorry. I was worried I might make it worse by stepping forward… “
“Sigh.”
This summer, after tossing the remaining apples on the ground, turned her gaze towards the fallen Nam Bora.
“Do we really have to move this?”
“We have to move it. We can’t let people say we abandoned it like a dog.”
“It’s really dirty.”
As if expressing her frustration with this summer, Seo Haneul let out a sigh and bent her body.
She lifted Nam Bora’s body on her shoulders like a burden.
“Instead, I’ll carry this.”
“This? Are you sure?”
When Seo Haneul gently lifted the burden, this summer relaxed her tense expression and chuckled.
It seemed absurd to treat Nam Bora like an object without realizing it.
“We might as well break up the team at this rate.”
“The team already started to fall apart when Nam Bora jumped like that.”
Tap. When Seo Haneul took the first step, this summer walked beside her.
“Oh? What about next?”
“Next? What do you mean?”
“What do you think will happen if the team falls apart? Or what do you want to do?”
Next. Seo Haneul paused as she thought about the unpredictable future.
Because of that, this summer felt anxious but didn’t press her for an answer.
“Should I just quit the guild in Nokyang altogether?”
“Huh? Really?”
The conclusion was more surprising than expected, so this summer asked with wide eyes.
Leaving the guild was something she hadn’t even imagined.
“Yes. Anyway, Nam Bora will end up receiving disciplinary action. It’s not easy to just kick out an A-class Hunter like her. Even if there were minor disputes.”
“Minor? This?”
This summer laughed as if she couldn’t believe it, then soon realized why Seo Haneul said that.
Because Kim Ji-han, the guild representative, might consider this a minor issue.
“But isn’t it better to just let go of one of them?”
“Well, that’s true. It is, but… I think we’ll end on good terms in the line of consolation. Maybe with money or artifacts.”
“Hmm… Well, it’s a rather safe decision.”
Although there were occasional tensions within the guild, situations like the current one were rare. In cases like this, the perpetrator would compensate the victim, providing benefits to the injured party in an attempt to reconcile.
It was a somewhat conventional procedure.
“But if they still don’t like it, wouldn’t they ultimately choose our side?”
“That’s true, but if we make it clear that we’re leaving, they’ll have no choice but to watch. Who would try to stop us if we’re determined to go?”
“But what if someone does try to stop us?”
What would they do then?
With their interest in the guild gradually diminishing, Seo Haneul thought carefully about whether there was a viable way to leave. Soon, a good idea crossed his mind.
If things went as he thought, it might tarnish their reputation, but the two of them had no regrets. As A-class hunters, they could be well-treated anywhere they went, and freelancing was more than enough.
“Just cling to Mr. Sihu’s work. After all, he claims he didn’t get anything in return. He had to handle the compensation claims himself, and he didn’t even receive severance pay.”
When he was branded as a criminal, they drove him away, so there was no need to provide severance pay. However, since he was ultimately proven innocent, it was morally right to compensate him.
But the representative refused, citing damage to his pride.
If one were to say that their relationship deteriorated due to that…
Summer had been somewhat verbose in her explanations this summer, making Seo Haneul’s head spin, but he understood everything she wanted to convey.
“In the end, we’re leaving the guild, right? That’s fine.”
“Are you leaving too, Summer?”
“Isn’t it obvious?”
Summer rolled her eyes, as if asking why he considered it obvious from the start.
They had originally planned to leave together, and fortunately, there was no lingering attachment.
“Well, that’s a relief. It would have been lonely if you left alone.”
“If you had the intention to leave together from the beginning, why bother testing the waters? Anyway, it’s awkward.”
“I apologize.”
Seo Haneul smiled, indicating that he had nothing more to say.
The two continued their conversation as they walked, and before they knew it, they were outside the gate. A gate-like crack shimmered in the air.
As time passed, it became evident that the gate was closing.
“You did well.”
The other team from Nokyang who had been waiting outside greeted the two.
They quickly lowered their heads as a sign of respect, but when they saw Nam Bora, who was burdened by Seo Haneul, they raised their eyebrows in surprise.
“Um… but why is Nam Bora like this?”
“I’ll explain in detail later. For now, please prepare the mana shackles. She’s in a very unstable state mentally.”
If Nam Bora wakes up, she might fly off again.
In that case, there’s a high possibility of a major incident during the transfer.
Seeing Seo Haneul laying down the law like that, the people who had lowered their heads were confused and immediately made a phone call.
Some called Nokyang, and others called the Hunter Headquarters.
A while later, cold shackles were put on Nam Bora’s pale and slender wrists while she was still asleep.
It was the same mana shackles that Yu Sihu had worn in the prison.