Reunion

Oh Hyeonseong had been diligently spending his days.

He farmed together with the Spirits, occasionally went down to the village to spend time with the locals, ate meals with Gwon Gyeongmin’s family, and sometimes went over to the Yoo siblings’ farm to lend them a hand.

When he returned home, he enjoyed delicious meals, and during his free time, he would lie down comfortably and admire the scenery.

His days were leisurely yet fulfilling.

But once he had finished all of his daily work, he continued his training without exception.

The more rehabilitation training he did, the better his physical condition became, and at least for now, he still hadn’t reached his limit.

Thanks to that, his physical condition had improved considerably.

Tap-tap-tap!

“Phew!”

Oh Hyeonseong stopped and glanced down at his left leg.

After running vigorously through the mountain behind his house, his muscles were aching, but it was no longer to the point where his strength suddenly gave out like before.

If he endured a certain amount of pain, he could now run at a decent speed.

He had also become much better at maintaining his balance during strenuous movements that he couldn’t have performed before.

‘At this point, I could probably fight if I had to. Well, it’s not like I’ll ever get involved with Gates or monsters again anyway.’

Oh Hyeonseong was completely satisfied with his current life.

He had absolutely no intention of returning to the bloody battlefield as a Hunter.

Of course, even so, it was better to have enough ability to protect himself.

The world was still dangerous in various ways, even if it was nothing compared to the early days of the Gate incident.

No matter how well the system had been established, it was nothing like a world completely free of monsters and Awakened.

Of course, this village in particular felt as though it existed one step removed from all those troubles.

It was as peaceful as ever.

As a former Hunter, there were even times when Oh Hyeonseong wondered whether he was really allowed to live like this.

Creak.

Oh Hyeonseong returned home.

He placed the firewood he had brought into a corner of the yard.

It was firewood he had prepared for enjoying a fire during the winter.

It was a little embarrassing, but having a cozy fire in the yard had been one of his dreams ever since he was young.

After roughly finishing up the arrangement, Oh Hyeonseong dusted off his hands and turned around.

“Are you here?”

Joo Jihye emerged sluggishly onto the veranda of the detached house.

Seeing her appearance, which resembled a sloth, Oh Hyeonseong gave her an incredulous look.

“I saw the car outside, so I figured you must be here… You’ve practically moved in.”

“It’s cold outside. It would be a little strange to just wait out there.”

“Why did you come all the way here? I told you to just contact me when you ran out of strawberries. I could send some to you right away.”

“I didn’t come to get strawberries! The location for my latest filming happened to be close to here. I finished filming and drove straight over.”

Joo Jihye said with a bright smile.

“This shoot was amazing! The drama will be premiering soon, so make sure you watch the first episode. It’ll definitely be a huge success.”

“Confidence is good. Anyway, are you saying you came here just because it was nearby?”

“I also wanted to show you how much better I’m doing. I don’t have trouble sleeping anymore. It’s all thanks to you, Master.”

“I told you not to call me an instructor, and now I’m a master?”

“Uh… Then should I call you Teacher?”

“No. Just don’t call me anything.”

Oh Hyeonseong left her there and headed toward the storage shed.

Joo Jihye poked her head out and spoke.

“Have you been doing well while I was gone? I brought you a present, too.”

“I’ve been fine.”

“What about Master Suyeon? She’s not here.”

“That girl is always busy. She left with you on the day you went back up.”

“Oh, so she hasn’t come back since then. I was just curious because of that news lately.”

“That news?”

“There was a scary rumor going around. Apparently, people are saying that Daeseong Group wasn’t taken down by the prosecution this time, but that the Disaster Management Bureau deliberately went after them.”

“Ah.”

Oh Hyeonseong nodded at Joo Jihye’s words.

He had also seen the news about Daeseong Group that had caused such a stir recently.

They had committed all kinds of illegal acts in an attempt to restrain Hankeong’s food business, and the incident had eventually resulted in even the chairman being indicted.

‘They never revealed the exact target, but considering the timing, it was probably the strawberries I was supplying. I didn’t expect them to go this far, though. They must have been pretty desperate from a business standpoint. It could have become quite troublesome.’

The Hunter forces possessed by major corporations could never be underestimated.

It wasn’t simply a matter of having dozens of Hunters operating at headquarters.

It was common for them to establish separate security companies and operate large Hunter units under them.

In an era like this, the need for Hunters was increasing regardless of what kind of business you were involved in or where you operated.

If Daeseong’s Hunters had moved seriously, Oh Hyeonseong could have found himself in quite a troublesome situation.

Of course, there was no need to worry about that now.

All the Hunters who had participated in the criminal activities had been subdued by the Disaster Management Bureau and thrown into detention.

It was uncertain whether the chairman himself would actually serve prison time, but if his opponent was Han Suyeon, he had probably been forced into a humiliating settlement while she kept a few of his weaknesses firmly in her grasp.

As far as Daeseong was concerned, they probably never wanted to hear about the strawberries again.

‘As expected, the potatoes really work.’

Oh Hyeonseong nodded in satisfaction.

Since he had asked her for help, she had probably also taken measures within Hankeong Group itself, such as raising the security classification.

As long as she had his back, he wouldn’t have to worry about the secret being leaked.

“Heh-heh. I can’t believe someone with enough power to crush a conglomerate chairman is part of my personal network.”

“You’re already talking about connections?”

“We shared a deep bond during those seven days. The kind of bond only comrades-in-arms can understand…”

Thud!

A heavy sound came from inside the storage shed.

Joo Jihye’s body instinctively shuddered.

“How’s Jeongil doing?”

“W-well… He’s doing fine. He seemed really happy when he saw that I’d recovered. Normally, you couldn’t tell what he was feeling from his face, but lately, President Choi seems a little brighter too…”

“That’s good.”

Oh Hyeonseong returned from the storage shed carrying several weighted training bags.

Joo Jihye flinched at the sight of those unforgettable training devices and stepped backward.

“Don’t worry. They’re not for you.”

Oh Hyeonseong strapped the weights all over his body.

The weight was considerably heavier than when he had first started, and Joo Jihye was stunned when she saw him.

The number written on the weights was especially alarming.

“You’re going to wear those?”

“I’m doing rehabilitation training too. I’ve been training continuously since you left. Thanks to that, I’ve already increased the weight to five Joo Jihyes.”

“W-what does that even mean? Why is my name being used like that?”

“Hmph!”

Oh Hyeonseong began his training as usual.

Just because a guest had come didn’t mean he could skip his training altogether.

But Joo Jihye’s gaze toward him had changed.

‘No way. He’s carrying that much weight on his entire body, and he can still perform those movements so effortlessly?’

It wasn’t simply the weight.

There was no wasted movement in anything he did.

He found the exact point he needed to stimulate, with not even the slightest unnecessary tremor.

His movements were as precise as those of a machine.

‘To think someone like that has been retired from being a Hunter for years…’

A body that wasn’t used would inevitably become rusty.

Hunters were sometimes called superhumans, but ultimately, they weren’t fundamentally different from ordinary people.

If they stopped going into the field, their senses would inevitably dull, while an untrained body would deteriorate.

That was why there was such a huge difference between active Hunters and retirees.

Yet the intensity of the training Oh Hyeonseong was performing now was enough to rival that of the strongest Hunters.

‘Even if they brought in every combat-type Hunter from Aegis, there probably wouldn’t be many who could do something like this.’

Until now, all she’d known was that he was the senior of Han Suyeon and Choi Jeongil.

She had never heard about his achievements or stories from his days as a Hunter, nor had she ever had the chance to see his abilities firsthand.

That made it even more astonishing.

Why was there absolutely no record of someone like Oh Hyeonseong?

An even greater question began to form in Joo Jihye’s mind.

“Wait!”

Just then, Oh Hyeonseong, who had been deeply focused on his training, suddenly stopped.

He turned and his eyes met Joo Jihye’s.

“But why are you just standing there watching?”

“…What?”

“You haven’t fully recovered yet. Are you planning to just eat strawberries without training until your aftereffects completely disappear?”

“Huh…? B-but… I haven’t been here in a while…”

Joo Jihye’s face turned pale.

She frantically waved her hands, but naturally, that wasn’t going to work.

“Ueeeergh…”

Joo Jihye clung to the wall and dry-heaved.

Her trembling legs looked like those of a newborn fawn.

“If you’re going to throw up, go to the bathroom. If you vomit here, I’ll make you do another lap.”

“I-I don’t have anything left to throw up.”

Joo Jihye barely managed to lie down on the veranda.

Her vision was spinning violently, and she couldn’t move an inch.

The weight was even heavier than last time, and she had tried to keep up with Oh Hyeonseong’s pace.

It felt as though she’d taken a brief trip to the afterlife.

Meanwhile, Oh Hyeonseong still had stamina left.

Normally, he would have immediately started another cycle to completely exhaust even that remaining stamina.

But he stopped here.

Boom!

The weighted bags attached to his entire body fell to the ground with heavy thuds.

Feeling the lightness of his body, he sat down.

‘I’ve brought my physical condition up quite a bit. It’s about time I started working on my mana.’

Mana began to ripple around Oh Hyeonseong.

He calmly continued breathing as he slowly circulated his mana.

Joo Jihye, who had been sprawled out on the floor, suddenly raised her upper body and stared at him.

‘Huh? I thought he didn’t have any mana?’

Shock filled Joo Jihye’s eyes.

And understandably so.

Hunters could sense mana.

That meant they could sense and read not only the mana they themselves used, but also the mana accumulated by other people.

The act of reading another Hunter’s presence generally referred to this.

One of the major weaknesses of ability-type Hunters, who possessed superior firepower, was that their presence was relatively easy to detect.

The greater a Hunter’s mana reserves, the more difficult it was to conceal their presence.

Compared to combat-type Hunters, who possessed much smaller mana reserves and relied primarily on their physical abilities, this was a clear disadvantage.

And Joo Jihye had never been able to sense any mana from Oh Hyeonseong.

It wasn’t as though he had merely erased his presence temporarily.

They had lived together in the same house for an entire week.

There was no way he could have deceived her.

Yet the amount of mana she could now sense from him was far beyond what a combat-type Hunter should possess.

Vroooom!

‘It feels like my body is filling with mana… It’s been a long time.’

Oh Hyeonseong was neither a combat-type nor an ability-type Hunter.

Back when he was active, he hadn’t belonged to either category.

If he had possessed no mana at all, there was no way he could have maintained contracts with hundreds of Spirits.

The reason Joo Jihye hadn’t been able to sense any was because he had deliberately maintained himself in a state where all of his mana was depleted.

Aside from the amount of mana allocated to and consumed by his contracts with the Spirits, Oh Hyeonseong had sealed away everything else.

The reason was simple.

His weakened body couldn’t contain his mana.

Because his physical recovery had been unable to progress beyond a certain point due to his injuries and aftereffects, storing all the enormous amount of mana he originally possessed inside his body would have placed tremendous strain on him.

In other words, he had deliberately emptied himself out so that his weakened body wouldn’t be burdened.

But things were different now.

As he had improved his physical condition, his body had become capable of handling a certain amount of mana.

And now he was bringing out some of the mana he had previously isolated.

“Phew.”

Oh Hyeonseong stopped manipulating his mana and exhaled.

He could feel the mana filling his body.

He created a single ring of mana within his core, giving himself a reserve larger than that of most ability-type Hunters.

‘Well, the Spirits I’ve contracted with right now don’t have any combat abilities, so I can’t use them as a special trait or anything. But there are plenty of ways to make use of mana through basic manipulation alone, so it’s better to bring some of it out in advance.’

His body felt stable.

Fortunately, he didn’t need to expel the mana he had just brought out.

But at that very moment—

Vroooom!

“…Huh?”

Both of them turned their heads at the same time.

Something had happened that neither of them had expected, including the stunned Joo Jihye and even Oh Hyeonseong himself.

The air throughout the area suddenly cooled as though it were freezing over.

Amid the white, overwhelming chill, mana began to surge violently.

And within it, a hazy figure appeared.

“You… You are…”

Oh Hyeonseong’s voice trembled with shock.