My Assigned Hunters Climb the Tower - Chapter 07

========== CHAPTER 7 ==========

Lee Seong-ha, who had been standing in the room for quite a while, trudged out into the living room. He flopped onto the sofa and let out an exhausted sigh.

“Umm… have you… eaten dinner?”

Kang Hoon asked in a voice no louder than a mosquito’s. Only then did Lee Seong-ha feel the emptiness rumbling in his stomach. He just tilted his head to look at Kang Hoon. His voice was blunt, but his momentum had died down a bit compared to before.

“Is there anything in the fridge?”

“Nope.”

Lee Seong-ha squeezed his eyes shut.

‘Damn Go Gyeol… and damn my life.’

Because of that one damn friend, Go Gyeol, his path as a priest was over, and he ended up back on the path of a Hunter.

But he never even dreamed that the start of it would be reduced to cooking meals for a high school kid.

Meanwhile, at that time, the cold light of the screen was chillingly illuminating Go Gyeol’s face.

[Mission: Recruit the Witch with S-rank potential, ‘Kang Ji-hyun’.]

[Reward: ???]

[Penalty upon failure: Decrease in ‘System’ reliability.]

Deep fatigue settled in his eyes as he stared at the mission window.

It had already been three days. Potential or whatever, the pressure given by those three syllables of her name was more suffocating than clearing most dungeons.

Go Gyeol turned his gaze to the messy investigation reports scattered on the desk. Before the regression, the memory of cramming the entire Hunter Association database into his head was vivid. In those memories, ‘Kang Ji-hyun’ could be defined in one word.

A ticking time bomb.

She was the same ‘Witch’ class as Kang Hoon, but her specialty was specialized in ‘Alchemy’ and ‘Offensive Magic’ rather than combat magic.

Lethal attack power based on powerful potions and poisons. Looking only at that ability, it would be normal for anyone to be desperate to recruit her to their team.

But Kang Ji-hyun was not that person. She enjoyed using her abilities to ruin those who displeased her more than using them to help people. Curses filled with resentment never ceased around her laboratory, and rumors were rampant about those who had ruined their lives due to side effects after drinking the potions she made.

In the end, she died. When Korea was swarming with Gates and everyone was focused on the Tower, she was murdered by someone.

The culprit was never identified until the end. Go Gyeol thought that perhaps that cold case was a natural result. Because she had far more enemies than allies—vicious enemies who wanted her dead, at that.

“What about Kang Hoon? Is he coming straight here after school?”

“Yeah. Why? Do you have something for Hoon to do?”

Lee Seong-ha asked with wide eyes.

“No.”

Along with the short answer, something flew at him. Lee Seong-ha reflexively reached out and snatched the flying object. What he caught in his hand was the familiar feel of car keys. When he looked at Go Gyeol with an expression asking why he was throwing this, his eyes, now set on a decision, pierced straight through Lee Seong-ha.

“Let’s go.”

“Where?”

“To recruit Kang Ji-hyun.”

There was no point in sitting at the desk and worrying anymore. She was a person he had to bring in anyway.

If she was a ticking time bomb, he had to either defuse her before she exploded or drag her along while holding the safety pin in his hand. For the first time in three days, a faint flame ignited in Go Gyeol’s eyes. It was time for him to face the cold case called ‘Kang Ji-hyun,’ which no one had been able to solve before the regression, himself.

As soon as the car door opened, a suffocatingly dense scent of roses crashed over them like a wave. It was a scent that felt almost as sticky as liquid. Lee Seong-ha gasped involuntarily, but Go Gyeol frowned as if he were used to it.

At the end of his gaze, beyond a low stone wall, lay a rose garden with no discernible end.

Red, white, yellow, and even blue and black roses that shouldn’t exist in reality. Every color was blooming violently, each showing off its perfect form. At that ostentatious beauty, Go Gyeol muttered to himself.

‘Your taste is still the same.’

“Wow… so this is where Kang Ji-hyun lives? It’s like a princess’s garden from a fairy tale. Isn’t it too pretty for a witch to live in?”

Go Gyeol replied coldly to Lee Seong-ha’s voice, which was mixed with admiration and doubt.

“Don’t ever say the word ‘witch’ in front of Kang Ji-hyun.”

“Hey, I’m not an idiot. Would I say it right to her face?”

Lee Seong-ha shrugged with a smirk. Even with his light attitude, Go Gyeol’s expression did not soften.

“Let’s go.”

With the short words, Go Gyeol placed his hand on the simple sliding door leading to the garden. Unlike its heavy appearance, the door slid open smoothly and silently, responding to his touch.

It was the moment they took their first step inside the door. A rainbow-colored flash burst from the corner of their vision. It was a small bird, as small as a hummingbird, but each feather scattered light like a prism. The bird hovered in front of the two, and a clear but somewhat sharp voice rang directly into their heads.

[Oh. They say your name is Go Gyeol (Noble/Pure), but unlike that name, what brings a person with such a filthy personality to visit all the way here?]

Lee Seong-ha’s jaw dropped at the sudden personal attack. His flustered gaze darted back and forth between Go Gyeol and the little bird. On the other hand, Go Gyeol let out a deep sigh like someone who had resigned himself to everything. He looked like this kind of treatment wasn’t the first or second time.

“I came because I have something to say. May I come in?”

He stated his business as if it weren’t worth arguing with the bird.

Instead of answering, the little bird stared intently at Go Gyeol with its beady black eyes. The gaze felt like a blade. A suffocating silence flowed, as if even the buzzing of bees and the sound of rose petals brushing in the wind had ceased.

It was the moment Lee Seong-ha, unable to bear the awkward atmosphere, opened his mouth to say something.

Click.

A sharp sound rang out, breaking the silence.

The sound came from a small cabin in the middle of the rose garden, surrounded by countless flowers. Soon, the old wooden door opened by itself, very slowly.

And a languid, deep voice, different from the bird’s, echoed throughout the garden.

[Come in.]

It sounded more like an irresistible command than permission. Go Gyeol walked toward the open door without hesitation. Lee Seong-ha, following behind him, swallowed hard, struggling to hide the feeling that he was truly entering a ‘Witch’s house.’

The scent of roses that had been filling the garden as if to suffocate it disappeared like a lie the moment they crossed the threshold of the cabin. As if they had entered another dimension, the inside was a quiet, scentless space with no smell at all. In the center of the not-so-large room, an old wooden table was placed, and on it, two teacups were steaming, as if they had just been poured. It was proof that everything had been waiting for them.

Go Gyeol pulled out a chair and sat down familiarly without a moment’s hesitation. Seeing that, Lee Seong-ha also relaxed and flopped down opposite him. Unable to suppress his curiosity, he picked up the teacup and brought it to the tip of his nose.

“Hmm, I thought it would be rose tea. Surprisingly, it’s green tea?”

Just then, a languid voice flowed from the deepest darkness of the cabin.

“There’s no need to drink the scent that comes from me. Right, Go Gyeol? It’s been a while.”

The owner of the voice walked out of the shadows and revealed herself in the light.

It was a breathtakingly beautiful sight. A black silk dress with a deep neckline that revealed the curves of her body, black wavy hair cascading down like a waterfall, and a captivating face that completed it all.

In particular, the small red dot under her eye was like the finishing touch that breathes life into a painting.

Kang Ji-hyun. She sat elegantly opposite Go Gyeol and crossed her legs. Every movement of hers seemed to make even the air her ally.

“So, did you come to date me again?”

“Cough! Ack, hack!”

Lee Seong-ha, who was about to drink tea, choked on it at the unexpected nuclear-bomb-level question. Toward him, who was coughing violently with a bright red face, Go Gyeol took out a neatly folded handkerchief from his pocket and held it out without a single change in expression. His gaze was fixed solely on Kang Ji-hyun.

“You still haven’t given up on that thought?”

“Is it a wrong desire to want to make the most excellent man the father of my child?”

When Kang Ji-hyun waved her slender fingers in the air, a new teacup appeared in front of her as if it had been there from the beginning. She picked up the teacup, brought it to her lips, and looked at Go Gyeol as if piercing through him.

“I’m sorry, but I want to date someone I love.”

At Go Gyeol’s answer, Kang Ji-hyun laughed as if it were absurd. She slowly traced her face and body with her finger and said,

“This face, this body. Is there any part of it that’s lacking to be loved?”

“Your head.”

It was a single word that flew in and struck like a blade.

At those words, a clear crack appeared on Kang Ji-hyun’s beautiful face.

“Tch.”

She turned her head away sharply as if she were annoyed.

In an instant, the air in the office froze like a Siberian field.

Lee Seong-ha almost spat out the coffee he was drinking without realizing it. The discussions about inter-guild cooperation that had been going on until just a moment ago were nowhere to be found. Between Go Gyeol and Kang Ji-hyun, only the tight tension of the moments before the outbreak of World War III hovered.

‘What is this, what the hell is this atmosphere? Head? What about her head?’

Lee Seong-ha rolled his eyes desperately. He was a childhood friend who had stuck with Go Gyeol since kindergarten. He shared almost everything except sleeping time, and he even knew what Go Gyeol had for dinner yesterday. That Go Gyeol was now making an expression he had never seen in his life. It was a face mixed with something terribly personal, different from his usual coldness.

Kang Ji-hyun on the other side was the same. The composure of being the best Witch Hunter in Korea had disappeared, and she was on edge as if she were about to grab her ex-husband by the collar.

This wasn’t a business dispute between guilds. Lee Seong-ha’s ‘Best Friend Radar’ was sounding warning alarms like crazy.

‘Wait a minute. No way… it can’t be. Him? That bastard Go Gyeol?’

Lee Seong-ha’s mind became tangled in complexity. A workaholic who only distinguished women as Friend A, B, and C. His friend, whom he firmly believed had absolutely no dating cells? With that Kang Ji-hyun? It was a combination he had never even imagined. If that were true, he would even have to feel a sense of betrayal regarding their decades-long friendship.

He couldn’t stand this suffocating silence and the possibility of betrayal. Lee Seong-ha had to confirm it. He barely cleared his throat and asked with the most innocent face possible, as if he knew nothing.

“Um… by any chance… without me knowing… did you two have something going on? For example… like dating…?”