TFGSR 03

Chapter: 03

She had grown quite a lot in the meantime, but there was no mistaking it—the features of her face were exactly the same.

<What? I like Jeyeon unnie the most.>

“……Jena?”

She was the youngest summoner of Seongyeon Guild, the crybaby who used to follow Jeyeon around everywhere.

“How do you know my name?”

Jena smiled curiously and stepped closer.

Jeyeon swallowed hard as she remembered the childish face overlapping with the young woman standing before her.

She could still vividly remember Jena proudly showing off the new school uniform she had bought because she was about to enter middle school.

And now that little kid was looking down at her.

‘……It really has been ten years.’

Only then did ten years stop feeling like a number and start feeling like the passage of time.

Come to think of it, that interview from earlier must have been ancient history to these kids.

“Student?”

When no answer came right away, the smile disappeared from Jena’s face.

“Student, that blood…… Are you hurt somewhere?”

“…….”

“Read this carefully. And if you need any help, tell me, okay?”

Jeyeon spoke impulsively.

“Why are you still in the guild Seong Jeyeon created?”

“……Huh?”

“You know, the traitor who supposedly wanted to kill everyone in the world. What should I call her, human garbage or something?”

Jena, who had been treating her kindly the entire time, suddenly turned cold.

“What?”

“If it were me, I’d have run away without looking back. I’d be disgusted.”

“……What do you know?”

Jena muttered coldly.

“You’ve never even seen Seong Jeyeon yourself. Don’t believe that everything you’ve heard from other people is the whole world, you brat.”

Jeyeon had never seen Jena this angry before.

She had been too gentle-hearted and tearful to live as a Hunter. Jeyeon used to worry about when they would ever be able to raise her enough to send her into the Tower.

‘This little brat is pretty scary.’

Her worries had been pointless. With her this fierce, what was there to worry about?

The smile that had been about to escape Jeyeon’s lips faded bitterly.

This child was still on my side.

Gitaewon, why are you—

“That person was already protecting the world when she was your age. Do you even know whose efforts made it possible for you to spout nonsense in a world this safe—!”

Jena suddenly stopped herself.

‘Huh?’

The student standing before her had tightly closed her lips.

And she had an expression that looked as though she might burst into tears if someone so much as poked her.

Only then did Jena come back to her senses.

“Ah…….”

‘……What do I do?’

No matter how insolent she was, she was still a kid. Jena had practically bullied an adult-sized child to the verge of tears.

The student even lowered her head completely.

“No, hey, I…….”

Honestly, shouldn’t I be the one crying here?

Jena couldn’t bring herself to pat the student on the back. Instead, she opened and closed the hand she had awkwardly extended toward her.

Then—

Grab!

That hand was suddenly seized by the other person.

“Whoa! You scared me!”

Jena met the student’s eyes as she lifted her head again.

With her eyes red from holding back tears, the student gave a small smile.

“……It was worth it.”

“What?”

“Because what you said just now really helped me.”

Jena blinked in confusion.

The student roughly wiped away the remaining moisture with her sleeve. Then she adjusted her grip on Jena’s hand as though shaking hands and vigorously moved it up and down.

“I’ll join the guild.”

“Huh?”

“I said I’m joining Seongyeon Guild. I’m an awakened person, you know.”

“After insulting us like that?”

“People only criticize things they care about.”

Jena stared blankly at the student before hurriedly adding,

“Ah, I should tell you this in advance. If you’re looking for a guild because you want to go on that survival show, we’re not in a position to support something like that.”

“Survival show? I’m not joining because I want to go on anything.”

The student pointed her chin toward the stack of flyers in Jena’s hands.

“Anyway, you don’t need to hand these out anymore. I’ll make sure you never have to do this again. So, shall we just fill out the paperwork?”

‘……What is with this kid?’

In all her years, this was the first type of child Jena had ever encountered.

Her confidence, with absolutely no discernible basis, was astounding.

“When did you awaken? What’s your class, rank, and level?”

“I awakened just now, and of course my class is Summoner.”

“……Just now?”

Jena’s gaze swept over the bloodstains on the school uniform once more.

“That blood—is it yours?”

“Ah, I got hurt a little when I awakened. Thanks to my recovery ability, I’m fine now.”

Jena fell silent for a moment.

A school uniform covered in blood.

And the claim that she had awakened just now.

But whatever had happened, there was an old unspoken rule among Hunters: if the person involved was being vague about their circumstances, you didn’t pry.

But wait.

What did she just say?

“Summoner? How did you become a Summoner?”

“How? I just awakened as a Summoner.”

“Ah, so you awakened naturally.”

Jena nodded.

As expected. Unless you were a mage, there was no reason to deliberately aim to awaken as a Summoner.

Even so, it was strange.

She hadn’t seen a naturally awakened Summoner in the past few years.

Seongyeon was the only guild in Korea that had Summoners.

No, to be more precise, it was the only guild that still had Summoners.

Other guilds simply wouldn’t accept them.

‘So that’s why she wasn’t opposed to our guild.’

Meanwhile, Jeyeon was stuck thinking over what Jena had just said.

‘Naturally?’

The way she said it made it sound as though there was another way to awaken—and that was actually the normal way.

“Or is there some other way?”

It was only an offhand question, but Jena looked surprised.

“Huh? People of the fourth generation usually awaken with an Awakening Helper. You know, people who set things up so you can get the class you want.”

“…….”

“She talks like she just dropped out of nowhere.”

This time, Jeyeon was the one who was surprised.

‘Wait, those exist now?’

Back in my day, awakening and your class were like an unavoidable fate!

“First the survival show, and now this. You really don’t seem like a kid these days.”

Instead of answering, Jeyeon stared at Jena.

‘Should I just tell her?’

But the words wouldn’t come out.

To these kids, the name Seong Jeyeon might still be an unhealed wound.

If she carelessly dug into it, it might fester all over again.

‘Not now.’

At least not until she understood how the world worked now.

Jeyeon deliberately made her voice thinner.

“Ahem. I don’t use the internet at all. I don’t really watch TV either.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes. My family is very strict. I’m a complete bookworm.”

Jena’s gaze slowly moved between Jeyeon’s bloodstained school uniform and her face.

A bookworm.

The same bookworm who had just picked a fight with a complete stranger on the street by calling her a traitor.

“……That’s unexpected.”

A lot of things rose to Jena’s throat, but she swallowed them back down.

“Well, I guess that’s possible.”

“And what do you mean, ‘how’?”

“Huh?”

“Not ‘how.’ I don’t want to be anything other than a Summoner. Summoners are supposed to be the best and the strongest, after all.”

Jena’s eyes grew twice as wide as before.

It even seemed as though the corners of her eyes were turning red.

As if she were deeply moved to hear those words again after such a long time.

“That’s right. Summoners are supposed to be the best.”

Jena strode forward and grabbed Jeyeon’s hand.

Her expression suddenly looked as though she had just met a friend of ten years.

“You really came to the right guild. What’s your name? How old are you?”

“Lee Sihyeon, nineteen years old, and I want to join Seongyeon Guild.”

“Sihyeon, huh? Good. Then why don’t you come to our office right now? If it’s this time of day, everyone from the guild should be gathered for once.”

At the straightforward suggestion, Jeyeon smiled just as brightly.

“That’s exactly what I wanted.”

She had to see with her own two eyes what had become of her guild.

‘Let’s go.

Let’s take a look around my own home.’

However, Jeyeon’s smile didn’t last long.

Even after getting off at Sillim Station, they had to walk quite a distance before reaching the building.

And the building was practically falling apart.

“……This is it?”

“It’s a little far from the station, isn’t it?”

‘Is that the problem right now?’

Garbage bags that had been ripening in the late summer heat were piled up at the entrance of the building, with blowflies buzzing over them.

No matter how much the guild master had become a national traitor, could things really have fallen this far?

Seongyeon Guild had originally been the wealthiest guild in Korea.

Every prime piece of real estate in the Gangnam area had belonged to Seongyeon, and the resources from the dungeons it owned were so enormous that there had even been jokes about the guild being powerful enough to influence the government.

And a guild like that was now in a building like this?

“Ahem, Sihyeon. It looks like this from the outside, but the office itself is actually pretty nice.”

Jena desperately tried to lighten the mood.

“Yes…….”

Jeyeon climbed the stairs, wanting to believe her.

“The lobby is on the first floor, right?”

When she pointed toward a door half a floor above them, Jena gave an awkward smile.

“Well, I don’t know if you could really call it a lobby. Our office is in the semi-basement.”

Jeyeon followed the direction of Jena’s index finger.

Her pupils trembled.

So even this rundown building wasn’t ours.

“Come on down, Sihyeon.”