The Junior from the Security Bureau

The burrowing-type boss monster fell silent.

With the follow-up support that arrived afterward, the remaining monsters in the nest were completely wiped out as well.

Most importantly, the incident ended without a single casualty.

All of the Hunters and villagers who had been dragged away were rescued alive.

“Hy… Hyeonseong?”

Gwon Gyeongmin’s wife, Lee Hana, regained consciousness.

Realizing that she was being carried by Oh Hyeonseong, she flinched in surprise and looked around.

“H-How did this happen? I was definitely evacuating with Oppa. Did something happen…?”

She was still dizzy and unsteady, but before long, she managed to regain her balance and stand on her own.

“Don’t worry. Everyone is safe, and it’s all over now.”

They arrived in front of the village hall, where numerous vehicles had been parked.

Oh Hyeonseong carefully set Lee Hana down.

Then a man who had witnessed the scene came running toward them.

“O-Oppa!”

“Hana!”

The husband and wife embraced each other and burst into tears.

It was an emotional reunion after both of them had narrowly escaped death.

The same was true for the other villagers who had returned with the Hunters.

The people who had been waiting anxiously rejoiced and shed tears upon seeing their loved ones alive.

“Thank you, Hyeonseong. Thank you so much…”

Gwon Gyeongmin approached and threw his arms around him, still crying as he spoke.

Oh Hyeonseong smiled faintly, patted him on the back a few times, and then left.

It was time to give the exhausted couple some time alone together.

“You really… did it.”

Seo Jaeho approached Oh Hyeonseong and bowed his head deeply.

“Thank you. You didn’t just save our colleagues. You may have saved hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of people. The Bureau owes you a debt as well.”

The damage caused by a burrowing-type monster was impossible to predict.

It wasn’t the kind of monster that would simply destroy one village next to its nest.

It was a type of monster capable of causing mass slaughter on a truly enormous scale.

The fact that they had killed it before it could leave the discovered nest was an enormous stroke of luck for the Bureau, which otherwise could have been faced with an enormous headache.

But Oh Hyeonseong shook his head.

“No. Forget about that debt. If possible, leave my name out of the report as well.”

“Huh…? But why…?”

“I quit being a Hunter. Five years ago.”

At the sound of approaching footsteps from behind, Oh Hyeonseong turned around.

It was Choi Jeongil, who had just handed over the injured people.

Oh Hyeonseong smiled faintly at him and said,

“Since you came all the way here, stay for a meal before you go.”

The village had been thrown into complete chaos, but thanks to the Bureau’s swift cleanup efforts, it quickly returned to normal.

The injured received medical treatment, while restoration work and financial assistance for the households that had suffered damage were also arranged quickly.

Normally, things couldn’t have proceeded this quickly, but Han Suyeon had gone out of her way to make sure everything was handled promptly.

Since it had been a major incident involving a burrowing-type monster, reporters came to the village and caused some annoyance.

Other than that, however, everyone soon returned to their ordinary lives.

The same was true for Oh Hyeonseong’s household.

There was just one small difference.

They had gained one more member of the household.

“W-What on earth is this?”

Sitting at the dining table, Choi Jeongil was staring blankly ahead as if he had suffered a massive shock.

He still hadn’t put down the chopsticks in his hand.

Seeing his dazed expression, Joo Jihye burst out laughing.

“Ahahaha! Representative, I’ve seriously never seen you make a face like that before!”

“You… You knew about this?”

“Of course I did. I’ve been staying in this house for days. Come to think of it, Representative, you’ve never eaten here before, have you?”

Joo Jihye chuckled mischievously.

She even felt a strange sense of pride at being able to claim that she had experienced these ‘real foods’ before him.

Of course, whether she felt proud or not, Choi Jeongil was far too shocked to pay attention to her.

“Joo Jihye, go outside for a moment.”

“Eh… Do I really have to? I kind of want to record this on video.”

“Let me eat in peace.”

Joo Jihye looked disappointed, but at Oh Hyeonseong’s words, she obediently went outside.

Now only the two of them remained in the living room.

“I’m glad it suits your taste.”

“No, this isn’t merely a matter of suiting my taste…”

Choi Jeongil’s words came to a halt.

His mouth had been stuffed full of steaming white rice.

Normally, given his strict personality, he would never have allowed himself to look like this in front of his senior.

But right now, he simply couldn’t hold himself back.

“…I’m sorry.”

“No, don’t worry about it. Just eat.”

Oh Hyeonseong chuckled and waved his hand.

Seeing his junior enjoying the food so much only made him feel proud.

Besides, recently, Oh Hyeonseong had unexpectedly developed a hobby he had never shown the slightest interest in throughout his entire life:

Cooking.

It was largely thanks to the incredible quality of the ingredients, but even so, there was nothing more satisfying than seeing people enjoy his cooking and watching it disappear from the table so quickly.

Whine, whine!

At that moment, the Spirits that had been hiding between drawers and underneath furniture cautiously poked their heads out.

Then they scampered toward Choi Jeongil.

“Ah… you guys.”

Choi Jeongil looked down at the Spirits that had attached themselves to his thighs.

The moment Joo Jihye had disappeared, the Spirits recognized him and revealed themselves.

The Spirits were naturally very shy around strangers, but Choi Jeongil was almost as familiar to them as Han Suyeon was.

After all, he had known them for a very long time.

Choi Jeongil smiled warmly and gently stroked them.

“It’s been a long time, Senior’s Spirits.”

“I was actually going to talk to you about that.”

Oh Hyeonseong asked as though he already knew what Choi Jeongil meant.

Choi Jeongil nodded.

“I saw the traces left at the scene. There’s no way I could have failed to recognize them. Senior’s Spirit… Albern. Has he returned?”

“That’s right. I was able to defeat Grimhell thanks to his help.”

“But… if it was Albern, wasn’t he completely destroyed during the battle against the Queen?”

“That’s right. But he came back recently. Completely fine, without any difference from before!”

Oh Hyeonseong said with a shrug.

Even he found the whole thing difficult to believe.

He still had no idea how something like this could have happened.

Oh Hyeonseong suddenly grabbed one of the Spirits lying on the floor and lifted it into the air.

The Spirit giggled as though it was ticklish, but Oh Hyeonseong spoke with a serious expression.

“The food you’re eating right now. These guys grew all of it. And the reason all of what happened recently was possible was also because of the crops they grew.”

Choi Jeongil looked as though he couldn’t understand.

But Oh Hyeonseong had expected that reaction, so he began explaining everything to him.

How the crops could possibly taste so good.

What had happened to Joo Jihye.

And how injuries that should have left permanent aftereffects had somehow been healed.

He explained everything slowly, one thing at a time.

After hearing the entire story, Choi Jeongil couldn’t hide his astonishment.

“That’s… truly incredible.”

“The Spirits’ crops were effective against the aftereffects caused by injuries, both mentally and physically. So at first, I thought they simply had some kind of healing ability. Something that could restore a damaged body to its original condition.”

Oh Hyeonseong explained.

“But this is different. Even when my physical condition was better than it is now, something like resummoning a Spirit that had been completely destroyed was impossible.”

“You believe there must be something else involved.”

“Yeah. That’s why I wanted to talk to you. You’re the biggest expert in this field.”

Choi Jeongil nodded and fell silent for a moment.

After thinking for a while, he finally spoke.

“There’s something I know about the aftereffects suffered by Hunters. However, there’s something you need to understand first.”

“What is it?”

“Everything I’m about to tell you is information directly controlled by the Security Bureau. In other words, it’s classified.”

CLATTER!

“AAARGH! Who the hell are you?!”

A man wearing a hood that completely blocked his vision struggled violently.

But he was dragged helplessly inside and forcibly seated in a chair.

“Huff…!”

The hood covering his head was abruptly removed, restoring his vision.

He was sitting inside a dim interrogation room.

A neatly dressed man was seated across from him.

“W-What is this?”

“Mr. Kim Hansu, according to these documents, you are the person in question, correct?”

“Are you police?! This is a violation of my human rights, you bastards! Do you even know who I am?! Who the hell are you to kidnap me?!”

The man shouted furiously while slamming his handcuffed hands against the table.

As a high-ranking government official in the administration, he wielded considerable power and had numerous connections among senior police officials.

And yet, without a warrant or any legitimate procedure, he had suddenly lost consciousness in his own home and been dragged here.

“Vice Minister, we don’t care who you are. We don’t care whether your connections are with a police chief or the prosecution. We’re not even at the same table as your government officials, so what would we gain by trying to curry favor with you?”

“W-Wait… You’re not…”

The man belatedly lowered his gaze.

At the bottom of the documents the interrogator had presented to him,

the words National Security Bureau were clearly stamped.

Only then did the man realize where he had been taken.

His breathing quickened, and his body began to tremble.

“We’re in the business of filtering out people like you who sell out the country, aren’t we? Conveniently, your entire family is abroad studying. You’ve been trying to smuggle classified documents related to a secret project overseas for a while now, haven’t you?”

“I… I don’t know anything… I know nothing about that.”

The man lowered his gaze and muttered.

He tightly gripped his trousers and tried to calm his trembling breathing.

There would be no evidence left behind.

The interrogator had told him that the person he had been dealing with had already been arrested and that this was merely a process of cross-verification.

But he didn’t believe that.

It was an obvious ploy and an obvious threat.

CLANK!

Then the heavy door opened, and a woman entered.

Her clothes were completely splattered with blood, in stark contrast to her snow-white, pale skin.

The stench of blood was so strong that it seemed to fill the room simply from her approaching.

More than anything else, however, the man recognized her face.

Due to the nature of the National Security Bureau, the identities of its agents were almost never made public.

And yet she was such a major figure that even people outside the industry knew who she was.

When her cold gaze fell upon him, the man felt as though his breath had stopped.

Aaaaaaaagh!

Screams echoed from outside.

Until just moments ago, the sound hadn’t been audible because of the room’s soundproofing.

But now, with the door open, the screams seeped through the gap.

The woman dragged a chair across the floor and sat down.

“You’re someone who made contact with them just a few days ago, so I can recognize their voice well enough. I don’t want to see the blood of another citizen, so let’s get this over with quickly.”

She spoke emotionlessly as she looked at the trembling man.

Several minutes later,

the interrogation ended without much trouble, though there were slightly more bloodstains than before.

CLANK!

After leaving the room, the woman wiped the blood splattered across her cheek with a handkerchief.

When she returned to the office, the Security Bureau agents immediately stood up.

She casually waved her hand, signaling them to return to what they had been doing.

However, a news broadcast was playing in one corner of the office.

“Did you see that?”

“What happened?”

“Apparently, a burrowing-type monster had hidden itself somewhere out in the countryside, and the Bureau somehow managed to take it out before it could cause trouble. I wonder how those softies managed to find it. Looks like they’ll be walking around with their chests puffed out for a while, haha.”

“Hmm…”

She silently stared at the news.

Then she slightly furrowed her brow.

“Changyeong-ri? Where have I heard that before…?”