Chapter 93 - I've Come to Share Some Good News

Gates and rifts between dimensions. At first glance, they might seem similar, but they were fundamentally different. People who entered a gate couldn't stay there forever, and if they kept walking, they would eventually reach its end. There was only so far they could go. Based on these characteristics, scholars theorized that gates were enormous fragments broken off from other dimensions, and that remained the leading hypothesis. A rift between dimensions, on the other hand, was a kind of passage connecting one dimension to another. In theory, any hunter could enter a gate, but there was still no record of any living creature other than a dragon passing through a rift.

And although Minjun could use a little dragon power and occasionally manage dragon speech, it was still a stretch to call him a dragon.

"... You're right. Now that I think about it, Grandpa, something does seem strange." Sia nodded at Rokan's explanation. "Besides, gates don't suck people in like black holes the way rifts between dimensions do." But the gate at Yongduam Rock had pulled Minjun in, making it seem closer to a rift than a gate.

"How did Oppa get in there in the first place?"

"Even if we set that aside, it's strange that nothing happened to him on the way there or back."

As Rokan had explained, passing through a rift between dimensions inevitably caused pain so intense that an ordinary human couldn't bear it. He reasoned that Minjun, too, must have felt that pain traveling between Earth and Pangaea. Yet Minjun had said nothing about it. Sia hadn't thought deeply about the question before, but the more she listened to Rokan, the more she realized how much of it was strange.

"Grandpa. Come to think of it... there hasn't been a case of anyone getting sucked into a rift between dimensions and then returning to their original world, has there?" As Sia said, Rokan had never heard of any dragon who had settled on Earth returning to their original dimension. In fact, apart from the recent incident on Jeju Island, no one had ever even discovered a rift. But Minjun had gone into one and come back, as if to prove it could be done. He himself didn't seem to realize what that meant.

"..."

Rokan stared into space, his expression troubled. "I'm not even surprised anymore when things like this happen around Minjun." Unexpected things happened around him with uncanny regularity. Once or twice could be dismissed as coincidence, but at this point it couldn't possibly be that. Even Rokan, who believed he might understand Minjun better than Minjun understood himself, felt the troubling mysteries multiplying as time went on. But he couldn't tell even his granddaughter what he knew about Minjun's secret. With no one to discuss it with, he swallowed a sigh.

"Grandpa. Why do things like this keep happening to Oppa?" Good or bad, none of it was ordinary. All she wanted was to live an ordinary life with Minjun. Why did things like this keep happening around them? Rokan understood how his granddaughter felt. But... "..." He couldn't bring himself to answer her.

* * *

The next day, I was eating breakfast and idly scrolling through my phone when I noticed a text from Rokan.

<I'll arrange an S-rank gate for us soon.>

The moment I saw the letter S, my lingering sleepiness vanished. "... S-rank?" I knew we were going to enter a gate together soon, but I hadn't imagined we'd skip A-rank and go straight to S-rank. Aside from the gate break I'd seen on Jeju Island, I hadn't even been to an A-rank gate yet. Apparently, he intended to make me stronger, just as he always had. "He really doesn't do things by halves." Well, it wasn't as if we were going to an S-rank gate tomorrow.

As soon as I finished eating, I headed to Rokan's lair. When I arrived, I found him watering his plants. He seemed to have taken quite a liking to his new gardening hobby. And I felt a little bad thinking it, but with one hand behind his back as he watered them, he really did look like a grandfather. To look at him, he was a handsome middle-aged man who could have been Sia's father, but he was actually getting on in years. ... I should bring him a little succulent next time.

"Minjun, you're here."

"Good morning, Rokan."

"Yes. As you can see, I'm busy. Wait there a moment." Once he'd finished watering the plants, Rokan sat down and immediately brought up the guild.

"Yesterday, several guilds approached me almost at the same time about acquiring ours."

"Acquiring it?"

"Yes. In business terms, they want us to become a subsidiary. I'm sure you know why." Rokan was a draw in his own right, but their main goal was probably to bring me into their guilds. Since I showed no interest in joining another guild, they must have decided to buy ours outright to get me. ... Wasn't that going a bit far?

"Anyway, naturally, I have no intention of selling our guild. You only need to know it happened. And one more thing." Rokan handed me a sheet of paper. "A lot of people have been asking for you. I've collected all their inquiries here." I took the sheet and skimmed it.

At a glance, roughly half the inquiries were asking whether they could hire me as a mercenary for a day. There were few high-ranking hunters of A-rank or above, so when an A-rank hunter had to miss a raid for unavoidable reasons, large guilds sometimes urgently sought extra manpower by asking another guild to lend them someone for a short stint. I had a rough idea of the going rate, and even by a conservative estimate, these offers looked at least one and a half to two times higher than what other A-rank mercenary hunters received. They wouldn't offer that much extra for no reason.

"Some may genuinely need a hunter in a hurry, but I suspect most are making these offers to establish a connection with you."

"I think so too."

Apart from the day-long mercenary jobs that made up about half the list, there was a fair variety of requests to work together. They ranged from an invitation to guest-lecture for a day at my old school to mock battles with promising hunters from other guilds. There were even strange meeting proposals unlike anything I'd received before. Someone had offered me a television appearance, too. ... I didn't see much reason to accept any of those.

"Think them over and decide for yourself. Take one if it seems like a good opportunity; otherwise, don't."

"I will."

"You'll only get more attention like this from now on. You'll have to manage it carefully, and..." Rokan hesitated, seemingly unsure whether to continue, then spoke again. "It's not that I don't trust you, but be extra careful so nothing like last time happens again." By "last time," he probably meant the incident with Lia Black. Whether or not I was interested in that sort of thing, there was no guarantee something similar wouldn't happen again. Just thinking about it still gave me a scare.

"Anyway, that's everything I needed to tell you. Warm up and we'll start sparring right away."

"Yes, sir."

At my answer, Rokan gave me an ominous smile. "You'd better brace yourself. The training ahead will be on an entirely different level from anything you've done so far." Was he trying to scare me, or did he really intend to ramp up the difficulty? I found out soon enough. This man—no, this dragon—was absolutely serious.

"Rokan, I know I've gotten stronger, but this is a bit—"

"Didn't I tell you to brace yourself?"

That day, I got a taste of hell.

* * *

The next day. "Ugh, every part of me aches..." My whole body throbbed as soon as I woke up. I'd thought I was getting used to intense training lately, but apparently I'd been wrong. Yesterday's session had been so much harder than anything before that I'd spent the whole time retching and suffering cramps all over. It had actually made me wonder if I was going to die. Of course, when training ended, Rokan had given me a potion and cast healing magic on me. The fact that I could still feel the effects showed just how absurdly hard the session had been.

Holding my aching shoulder, I threw together a simple breakfast. I was still eating when the doorbell suddenly rang. At first, I assumed it was a delivery, but just before opening the door, I remembered when the Aura Guild had approached me. The circumstances had been much the same. Just in case, I looked through the peephole. An unfamiliar white woman stood outside. This was almost exactly like last time. But by now, they must know I belonged to a guild, so it probably wasn't an invitation to join one. I needed to find out what she wanted. As a precaution, I left the security chain on and cracked the door open.

"Who is it?" As soon as I poked my head out, the woman answered with a friendly sales smile. "Hello. Are you Hunter Yoon Minjun?"

"Yes, I am... Why?"

"I'm sorry to visit without warning. I have an important proposal for you. Could you spare me a moment?" The whole thing was obviously suspicious. Were foreigners going door to door asking people if they believed in the Way now, too?

"Tell me what this is about first." I asked without removing the chain, keeping my guard up. Instead of answering, she paused. "If you won't tell me why you're here, I have nothing to discuss with you." As I moved to close the door, she hurriedly slipped a hand into the gap to stop me. Then she whispered so softly I could barely hear her. "Would you be interested in special naturalization?"