Chapter 2 – Introduction (3)
Yeriel Frost was dressed much more comfortably than usual.
Even her hair feels a bit disheveled for her own.
When I cared about it, she explained it with a shy smile.
“It’s a bit cluttered, right? I’m sorry. It’s the first time I’ve slept more than 5 hours since I started my life as a hunter.”
“I see.”
After a short wait, breakfast was delivered downstairs.
I think it was served in a restaurant…
I didn’t even dare to touch my meal.
In the end, instead of raising a spoon, I decided to ask the most curious questions first.
How the hell did my identity get discovered?
“How did you find out?”
“What?”
Yeriel pretends not to hear Alice’s question, who is still in her place, and answers obediently.
“I was lucky. It wasn’t that Jaehyun made a mistake.”
“…”
“Sister, who the hell is this person? What is he talking about…”
“I bet you’ve met them too? Green Dust.”
Udangtang!
Alice Winter jumps behind her as Yeriel speaks briefly as she raises her glass of water.
She took her pocket watch out of her pocket and glared at me.
Originally, the expression was not very good, but a strong murderous intent was added to it.
I sat still, giving up useless resistance.
Even a single Yeriel Frost was daunting, but when Alice was added, it was an inevitable defeat.
Of course, it’s just that he doesn’t have the confidence to shake off the two women and run away.
In the end, I will lose, but in case of emergency, I can not only take the two of them together, but also turn the whole of Seoul into a land of death.
“Sit down.”
Alice returns to the table as many times as Yeriel wants to speak briefly.
But the pocket watch was still pointed at me.
Yeriel smiled apologetically and reminded her of yesterday.
“Have you thought about my proposal?”
Can you call that a suggestion?
Thanks to that, I recalled yesterday’s retirement ceremony and swallowed a sigh.
It was really absurd to receive a marriage proposal out of the blue while clapping.
At the time, I was congratulating her on her retirement from the bottom of my heart, so to be honest, I even felt betrayed.
In the end, the words of rebuke came out of my mouth.
“I should have just retired and not done this.”
“…”
Alice showed her caution once more when my tone changed.
I said to Yeriel, not very conscious of her.
“It was an opportunity to retire with honor. You’ve done enough. Nobody’s going to say anything if you just leave.”
Although I’ve met Yeriel during my activities…
Even so, it only briefly passed by two or three times.
There was no incident that would have earned her a grudge or made her hold a grudge against her.
For Yeriel, there was no need to poke into the hive of green dust.
Even Alice seemed to agree with me.
Yeriel still smiled and made excuses as if she was sorry.
“But, if I hadn’t gone this far, I would have gotten away with plastic surgery.”
“…”
It was so accurate that I was speechless for a moment, but I tried my best to pretend it was nothing.
Then, as if teasing me, Yeriel added.
“Do I like the face I have now?”
“Did I look too complacent?”
“No way.”
Yeriel was such a mysterious woman that it was difficult to guess whether she was making fun of me or not.
After calming down the bubbling inside, I decided to listen to her request.
She would have done this because she wanted something from me.
“So, what would you like me to do?”
“You said that yesterday.”
“I don’t think there are that many men around you.”
When I said it from the bottom of my heart, Alice stood beside her and nodded her head eagerly.
Seeing that, she just wanted to fight like this.
Yeriel said calmly without changing her face color once.
“I hate other people.”
“Do your best to make fun of people.”
I can’t stand it and I’m about to get up, but Yeriel, startled, grabs my hand tightly.
I was wondering what I was doing, so I finally got to the point.
“360 days.”
“What?”
“At most 360 days left. Maybe shorter.”
Again, I don’t know what you mean.
She didn’t look like that, but she was a woman with a knack for making people feel stuffy.
Alice, like me, was only showing a bewildered face.
Suddenly, a thought ran through my mind.
“If 360 days…”
“Until the creation of gates and dungeons completely stops… That much remains.”
“!”
It’s nonsense.
I thought that such a day might come someday, but it was real.
What’s more, it’s less than a year away. I can’t believe it.
However, Yeriel’s face was very serious.
If it hadn’t been for an agenda like that, she wouldn’t have done this.
I couldn’t get up and sat down on the road.
“The basis?”
“I’ll show you the data.”
Swoop.
Yeriel held out a file prepared in advance.
It’s a paper material in this era.
I was a little frightened and took a quick look at the contents.
It was a graph showing the number of gates and dungeons created each year.
“As you can see, 20 years ago, gates and dungeons started appearing. The number of appearances per year gradually increased… And peaked here 10 years ago.”
“Therefore?”
I paid attention to the second half of the graph.
Alice, as if seeing this material for the first time, is examining it with her eyes wide open.
“After peaking, it declines gently… And then it declines so rapidly from the year before last.”
“It’s definitely sudden.”
“About 5,000 dungeons were created in Korea last year. But last year, only 2,000 were reduced.”
“Nonsense. Is it only that much?”
In fact, it was a known fact that gates were rapidly declining in frequency.
Wasn’t that why the citizens, including me, easily convinced of Yeriel’s retirement in the first place?
But I didn’t expect it to be like this.
I still thought there would be about 4,000 of them.
I hadn’t even touched my breakfast in the meantime, so I suddenly felt thirsty, so I drank a glass of water.
At this pace, Yeriel’s claim has some truth.
Dungeons and gates suddenly appeared, so it wouldn’t be strange if they suddenly disappeared.
Alice, however, tilted her head as if not noticing the seriousness of the situation.
“Sister, what’s wrong with that? Wouldn’t it be nice if gates and dungeons no longer occur?”
“Not at all.”
You’re doing well as a hunter with this kind of intelligence.
When I looked at Alice with those eyes, he didn’t lose and shot her in the eye.
Yeriel patiently explained for me.
“You don’t know what that is. Modern business is almost done through dungeons and gates.”
“Well?”
“Catching monsters and obtaining by-products such as magic stones. Reprocessing the by-products to make products, and using the abilities of hunters who are both hunters in business… That is the basis of modern society.”
It has been about 20 years since Gate appeared.
Now, modern society has become something that cannot be established without gates and monsters.
That’s why the Hunters were able to enjoy such powerful authority.
But, in this situation, what if the gate suddenly opens no longer and the monsters become extinct?
The very foundation of modern society is collapsing.
The resulting economic damage would be unimaginable.
Besides, the real problem isn’t that one.
“Until now, there were enemies outside.”
Monster.
A mighty adversary that threatens the very existence of mankind!
Even subjugation alone can yield valuable by-products.
Until now, even if damage occurred because of the hunters, the citizens passed over roughly.
Hunters are grateful beings who protect humanity from monsters.
Because without them, humanity cannot survive.
But… What will happen when there are no more monsters?
Will people still love Hunters when things change that much?
I saw no
“If the monsters disappear, most of the hunters’ sources of income will also be cut off. Some of them will survive on their own, but most will go into financial ruin.”
“Because that’s unavoidable…”
“Do fallen hunters really think that way? Even if their income decreases, consumption habits don’t change easily. There are many cases where they become criminals because they can’t afford it.”
Alice was silent as if she realized the seriousness of the situation only then.
I tried to simplify the situation as much as possible.
“If gates and dungeons disappear, it’s not strange if war breaks out between hunters and people. In the worst case, modern civilization will collapse.”
Alice looks at Yeriel as if to refute my words.
However, Yeriel nodded her head as if agreeing with me.
“I think so.”
“That’s why, all of a sudden, her sister decided to retire her?”
“Yes.”
Now I get it
Yeriel gave up her active duty qualifications in order to focus on a tougher fight than ever before.
Then, she pulled me in first.
Opposite her, two more serious eyes stared right at me.
“Green Dust’s activities were a kind of purge, right? They mainly executed criminal hunters.”
“…”
“I am unable to cope with the situation to come. Please lend me your strength. I will give you my all, so please give me the green dust and the Oracle instead.”
“Oracle?”
Alice was bewildered by the unfamiliar word, but…
My heart almost fell for a moment.
Did you know about this woman, the Oracle?
I think that’s why I prepared paper materials.
In front of me who had completely hardened, Yeriel once again proposed to me.
“Please marry me.”
