The Summoner's Rebirth: Awaken, Milady

"Say, Alena, do you have a big sister? A blood related one, I mean," Aria finally mustered up her will to ask.

Immediately, Alena's expression was spurred, and she went silent. "Why do you ask, big sister?" she had a complicated smile on her face.

Aria shrugged, wondering how she should continue the matter. She hesitated a lot since her relationship with Alena was being wagered.

"Because... I thought that you might be.." Aria slowly continued, dragging out her words. "You might be the little sister of someone I know. But then again, it could just be me overthinking everything," she added.

Her mind rewinded back to the 'clues' she thought matched with the girl in front of her right now.

______

"Your little sister.. The one in Germany. Apparently she awakened her Hunter powers, but something is off about it," Yuki said.

"..." Arin tightened her lips upon hearing the words 'little sister'.

Yuki studied Arin's response before carefully continuing. This was a sensitive topic to all parties involved, particularly Arin.

"According to the intel, she asked her subordinates for corpses. All sorts of corpses. If it was monsters only, I could understand, but..."

"Whatever happens to her isn't under my jurisdiction anymore. I couldn't care less. When I left that family, I broke all my ties with it," Arin snapped her head to the side, unwilling to pursue the matter.

______

She recalled that conversation a few months back. When she went to fight Yuki. They mentioned the existence of Arin's little sister. Arin's reaction was far from pretty.

Aria always knew that Arin had a complicated background. Jin-kyung was not her blood-related sister, it was clearly visible. This was later strengthened by the fact that Arin was addressed as 'Aileen' when she met Reina.

Arin's family. The only things she knew about them were the fact that they were from Germany, and her background was powerful. She escaped from that country and eloped to South Korea, where she met Jin-kyung and formed a sisterly bond with her. Only, she met an acquaintance that reminded her of the past, whom was Reina Alaster.

A series of coincidences always followed Aria's trails no matter where she went. The world was so huge, but to her, it seemed so small at the same time.

Everything seemed to be connected to each other.

When she looked closely at Alena's facial features, she found some similarities between her and Arin.

At that time, she also theorized that this particular little sister was a puppeteer. That power was uncommon, and the situation matched with Alena's story.

Aria began to wonder if Alena was the one those two mentioned.

"...Yes, I do have an older sister," Alena admitted. "And yes... she is someone you know,"

"...Arin, right?" Alena's attitude confirmed Aria's guess.

"Yes.. her birth name is Aileen Croft. My older sister... someone who left our family," Alena said with a distressed look to her face.

Aria never knew the full story behind Arin's family, she only knew that Aileen didn't feel comfortable with discussing her experience. Through that, Aria had assumed that she must've gone through negative things.

Now that Aria learned who Arin's family was, she began to speculate what happened.

However, to blatantly ask was insensitive.

"Really, our family has so many problems that I couldn't even begin to list it out. It would take too long to finish, or rather.. the bad things keep increasing," Alena said.

Aria didn't know what to say, whether to console the child or just drop the matter right here and then since it was clearly a negative matter for all.

It was enough for her to find out that Alena was the little sister of that time. That she was Arin's family.

"Alena, about the dungeon, let's brief over it right now before it's too late," Aria decided to change the topic.

Alena knew that this was Aria's way of being considerate and smiled. "Yes, big sister,"

Aria noticed a difference between the way Alena addressed her compared to Arin. Aria was a 'big sister', whereas Arin was an 'older sister'.

The difference was minimal, but it did trigger some thoughts for Aria.

The two began to fervently discuss the topic of their upcoming dungeon.

Aria, too, set her mind into fighting mode.

Not long after, they set for the location sent by Gin.

Gin was a broker based internationally, he belonged to a silent organization that wouldn't be seen under the public eye. Compared to other developed countries, South Korea had less opportunities to commit dungeon buying because of the strict rules imposed by the Association.

The number of dungeons that spawned was also not that impressive. As such, Gin could be referred to as the only broker in South Korea, even though his work stretched to other countries as well. It could be said that he was put into this position to cover South Korea's market.

However, the buyers, too, were low in numbers. Low demand and low supply, it was not a profitable job for Gin.

Fast forward to a couple minutes later, they were already standing in front of a sizeable rift located near an abandoned building. The place was indeed near the hotel they stayed in.

It was covered by quite the amount of terrain, so it hadn't been noticed yet. Gin got to the dungeon sooner.

Alas, the association had a Main user that could detect similar energy frequencies to the dungeon gates, so it would be discovered sooner or later.

Especially C-ranked dungeons that entered a 'dangerous' category. D-ranked dungeons' discovery would be delayed since it wasn't too much of a hazard, but C-ranked dungeons only took hours to mark, because it was placed as important.

That was why, Gin appeared in front of them for the first time to aid them in 'hiding' the dungeon.

He appeared to have a similar spell to what Jin-kyung used to temporarily hide the presence of a dungeon.

"Pleasure to meet you two, customers." Gin's voice embodied his sly and crafty personality.

Even from the first hearing, Aria already felt disturbed.

His whole body was covered in black clothes. In addition to the black mask he wore, only his eyes and silver hair could be seen. His figure was quite slender and had tall height.

As he talked, the tone they were familiar with surfaced. He was like a fox, who lured and persuaded people into making a decision beneficial to him.

How convincing he sounded almost made Aria wonder if a magic spell was behind the phenomenon. Mind control and hypnosis. However, Aria made sure that no active magical component was present in the vicinity.

"..It's a pleasure," Aria offered a handshake, but Gin didn't reciprocate the gesture as he stood still, motionlessly looking at her with a pair of narrow blue eyes.

"Never mind, then," Shrugging, Aria pursed her lips at the man that didn't want to socialize in the slightest.

"My company enforces a policy that makes us unable to come in direct contact with our customers, you see.. I don't want to risk breaking my company's code. That aside, I'd advise you to enter as soon as possible. Don't be dumb, don't be rash. I don't offer life insurance for my deals. I have already received the payment beforehand from yours truly, but.. Remember this. I will sustain the spell for only three hours. Anything that happens outside of the allotted time doesn't concern me, and that will end our transaction. If you get discovered by the Association, the things that happens after that will not implicate me... Capische?" Gin stressed his words.

"Two or three minutes for introduction does not necessarily mean anything, Sir Fox," Aria raised her brows as she readied herself to go inside the gate.

Gin didn't look like he appreciated the nickname. He stared at Aria, who also entered the staring contest with full pleasure.

"Big sister, we should.." Wanting to end the unnecessary dispute, Alena tugged on Aria's clothes.

Gin was introduced to her by an acquaintance, so they could potentially lose the one and only broker if they angered him. Not to mention the organization that backed the man up. It wouldn't be profitable to incur the wrath of any of them.

She more or less knew why Aria didn't really like Gin, because she also shared the same sentiments. Gin carried a presence that isn't exactly likeable. The difference was, she didn't sound out her prejudices since their choices were limited in regards to dungeon procurements.

"No.. I just wonder how much expertise it takes to be able to manifest arrogance. Or perhaps, you're way stronger than you portray yourself to be," Aria narrowed her eyes as she peered down into the male's figure from top to bottom, insinuating that the man was arrogant.

Aria's danger senses didn't tingle like it did with Cha Seol-hyun, but another explanation for it could be the lack of hostility Gin displayed.

Cha Seol-hyun was equivalent to a mad woman, she was hostile to everybody and their mothers, the whole audience that day was scanned through by her.

Gin was different.