Free Web NovelChapter 100: Speculations
<Outside the Gate>
After all of us had stepped out of the Gate through the swirling portal, I was met with an unfamiliar scene.
This kind of thing didn’t happen when I exited the first two Gates. At that time, the surrounding areas were completely empty from the outside. There wasn’t a single soul waiting for us.
But this time, we were immediately met with a small crowd of other Association employees who were still here from when we first went in.
I honestly thought they would leave this place after we went in, but I suppose they were strictly instructed to wait until we returned.
"Mr. Seok!" One of the younger field agents ran forward as his eyes darted between the exhausted and bleeding group of Hunters and then to the stabilization readings on his handheld device.
"Is... Is the Gate clear?" He had a slightly confused and anxious expression. With that, I could clearly tell that he wasn’t expecting a C-Rank Gate to wrap up this quickly.
Seok gave him a really big and radiant smile, the kind of expression that looked completely out of place on a guy who was barely holding back his tears.
"Yes. It is." He replied with just as simple an answer as that.
"That—that soon?" The employee stammered, and his fingers froze over his tablet screen.
But Seok didn’t reply to him with a boring tactical breakdown.
Instead, he just stepped forward and tightly hugged the guy without saying any words at all while gripping the small piece of dragon bone inside his pocket with his other hand like it held more value than his own life.
"Yeah... Yeah... It is..." Seok suddenly spoke. "I am amazing... Am I not?"
He actually began jumping in a circle alongside the employee, who seemed to be a close friend or colleague of his.
The poor agent looked completely bewildered. He patted Seok’s wet shoulder and tried to keep his balance while Seok celebrated like a lunatic.
’Still... isn’t this a bit too much?’ I thought to myself, watching the scene unfold from a short distance away. frёeωebɳovel.com
Beside me, Vera shifted her weight from one foot to the other. She was still clutching my sleeve; however, her focus was on the staff in front of us.
Maybe... To her, these people were just unnecessary obstacles standing between us and a quiet room where she could tend to my slightly bleeding jaw.
As soon as Seok had confirmed to everyone that the raid was successful, the other two guys moved and quickly began typing on their computers and writing down the official clearance time.
Suddenly, Seok let go of his colleague. He wiped a droplet of water from his forehead, then turned his head slightly toward where Vera and I were standing.
And as soon as I glanced at him out of instinct, he winked at me.
After that, he moved his lips slightly and shaped the words in his mouth without making any sound. Finishing whatever he was saying, he raised his right hand and gave me a thumbs-up.
’I... Got... You...’
This was what I think he was saying based on his lip movements.
’Does it mean he will help us keep our identity a secret or something?’ I pondered.
Whatever it was, I didn’t really care because he himself also didn’t know who we actually were behind these ridiculous pieces of paper.
The only practical thing he could truly help with right now was not telling the Association how much we had actually helped inside this Gate.
If the official report stated that a couple of rookies wearing lunch bags had single-handedly bypassed a boss’s world-ending transformation and forced a Helping-Type Gate to stabilize, that could become a massive problem for my peaceful future plans later on.
....
Soon, the administration process began, where the Association kept track of everything in and outside the Gate.
And as the employees started writing down every single detail that happened inside the Gate into their logbooks, something surprising happened.
The other Hunters; Hana, the arrogant archer who was now remarkably quiet, and the heavy-armored couple, all actively helped with the lie Seok was telling to write in the report.
"Yeah, Seok took the lead with the trident," Hana lied to an agent taking notes. The noticeable thing was that her voice was perfectly steady despite her trembling hands. "We formed a defensive strategy, and the two rookies mostly stayed in the back, providing support and distractions."
The archer just nodded along. He didn’t say a single word, probably because he was absolutely terrified that if he exposed our strength, I might decide to use the dagger on his throat next.
It was a strange sight. A group of professional Hunters were completely fabricating an entire raid just to protect the privacy of two mysterious strangers. freewebnøvel.coɱ
But looking at the bigger picture, it made perfect sense. We had saved their lives. This was their way of paying off the debt without asking uncomfortable questions.
Then, after around half an hour of tedious paperwork, equipment checks, and medical scans that Vera and I completely refused, we were finally told we could leave since everything was officially done now.
’At last, we can leave this damn place,’ I thought, letting out a silent sigh of relief.
But still, there was one more annoying thing left.
While we were finishing up inside the tent, one of the enthusiastic Association employees had already written a brief article about this Gate raid on the internet.
Because of that, local reporters were now appearing one by one at the edge of the barricades placed around the tent.
"Hunter Seok! Over here!" a female reporter shouted and shoved a microphone in front of Seok. "Is it true that this Gate was a Helping-Type Gate? If so, then how did you manage to clear it without a single casualty?"
As the cameras swiveled around us, several lenses began drifting toward me and Vera, giving us a bit of immediate attention because of what we had on our heads.
Seok noticed the shift in the reporters’ focus instantly. He quickly stepped into the path of the cameras, intentionally blocking their view of us, and tried not to let them bother us any further.
"Please, calm down," Seok said as he raised his hands to command the crowd to stay back.
"The raid was a success. We encountered unexpected environmental variables, but we all did what we could as a team. I want to specifically thank every single Hunter who risked their lives today. Now, please excuse us; some of us require immediate medical evaluation."
While Seok was expertly handling the media circus and drawing every single camera away from the exit pathway, I gently grabbed Vera’s wrist.
We slipped past the back end of a vehicle and quietly walked away from them before anyone else could ask for our registration cards, which were actually fake.
...
<A Few Hours Later>
Inside a quiet and dimly lit room of a small local diner a few miles away from the Gate site, a television mounted in the corner was playing the afternoon news broadcast.
Viora was sitting directly across from me. Her paper mask was finally removed and was placed inside my pocket with mine.
Now her head was covered with a cap which I had bought on the way.
The small cut Trion had given me had already closed up completely, leaving nothing but a faint line, but she still looked incredibly displeased about the fact that it had happened at all.
"You should eat," she whispered and pushed a plate of warm food toward me. "Your body needs to recover energy after all that you did."
"I am fine, Viora," I replied with a small smile.
Suddenly, as we were exchanging words, the audio on the television turned sharper and caught my attention.
<"...A shocking development in the city earlier today," the news anchor announced. Her expression was serious as the screen cut to footage of the place we had left behind. "A C-Rank Gate experienced a sudden mana spike, throwing local monitoring stations into a brief panic. However, thanks to the heroic efforts of Association Supervisor Seok and a localized team, the Gate was cleared in time.">
The footage shifted to a clip of Seok speaking to the press, but as the camera panned horizontally for a split second, the screen captured a clear shot of Vera and me standing near the truck.
Even with the torn paper bags hiding our facial features, our blood-splattered clothes and distinct postures stood out starkly against the gray background.
The onscreen text flashed boldly: [MYSTERIOUS AUXILIARY HUNTERS?]
"Speculation is currently rising within the Hunter community regarding two unidentified individuals spotted at the scene," the reporter’s voice continued over a zoomed-in, frozen frame of our masked figures.
"Sources claim these two individuals entered the Gate without official guild affiliations. Are these two new high-ranking Hunters operating outside the system? Who are they? The Hunter Association has currently declined to comment on their identities, leading many to believe that a hidden pair of experts might be quietly moving through the lower-ranked sectors..."
I stared at the television screen for a long moment before telling the waiter to change the channel.
Then I reached into my pocket to grab the old paper the Queen had given me.
"Woo Jin?" Viora asked as she noticed me put the paper on the table. "What is that paper?"
"I don’t know, but it won’t be long before I do."
