Chapter 211: Champi Tree

Chapter 211: Champi Tree

“Let’s go to your house.”

“There’s someone at home, let’s go to a cafe.”

Champi Tree.

With green bobbed hair and yellow earrings.

Jewelry resembling the flowers of the Champi Tree dangled from her ears.

Despite wearing a stuffy hoodie, her face was quite made up.

Her short legs and cylindrical body didn’t do much for her style, though.

“What are you looking at?”Ne/w novel chapters are published at novelhall.com

“Nothing.”

After seeing Seong Jiho off, we immediately went out and found a suitable cafe.

As soon as Champi sat down on the enclosed sofa, she cheerfully started reciting the menu to the waiter.

“Let’s see~ I’ll have~ a Java Chip Frappuccino, three slices of blueberry cheesecake, a mocha cake, a vanilla croffle, and a cafe latte with two pumps of syrup.”

“...Pardon?”

“Oh! Right, right. They said the green tea here is good too. Please add that as well.”

Did she come to talk or to eat?

It’s not like an S-rank hunter would be short on money.

“Eating for free always tastes better.”

...Ah, it just tasted better that way?

What a cheap person.

I awkwardly smiled and ordered a vanilla latte.

Before long, the menu arrived, and the table was filled with snacks that far exceeded my usual meal portions.

“Lehuhu~”

Champi stuffed her cheeks with food and smiled happily.

Was this person really an S-rank?

I started to have doubts.

“Is it good?”

“Yeah, it’s freaking delicious. Want some?”

“Eat up. So why did you call me?”

Champi chewed the cake stuffed in her mouth, then put her lips to the straw of the cafe latte.

-Slorp.

Along with the coffee, gulp.

If an elder saw this, they’d smile proudly and say, “Oh, our kid eats so well.”

“Phew, that’s good. Right. Are you close with Sansuyu?”

“I’d say I’m the closest among the cadets and peers at the academy.”

“Really? I figured as much.”

She took another bite of the cake.

Mumbling, she continued.

“I’ve heard a lot about you from Suyu. But I didn’t know you were a disciple of that girl.”

“You mean Master Baekdo?”

“There are two more inside, right? Specifically... the red one?”

I was taken aback by her nonchalant revelation.

Did S-ranks share a lot of information? By the red one, she must mean Cheondo.

“Yeah, but why do you ask?”

“Why else? I came to leave an impression on that girl’s disciple. Later, when you’re doing well, I can boast on Trista, Twitter, and TreeInside that I had a meal with you... wouldn’t that be awesome?”

What a way to speak.

Even Byeol wasn’t like this when we first met.

Not that I found it off-putting, but she felt like a fun high school social studies teacher.

Champi sipped her Frappuccino and said,

“And my younger brother is in Spring Peach Blossom. Sumpee.”

“Ah. That’s how it’s connected.”

“S-ranks all know each other indirectly.”

Sumpee Tree, Paprika’s partner and a popular BJ.

We met briefly a few months ago along with the Korosina Tree and Bob, the Baobab Tree.

Their face was so striking that I still remembered it.

“Are you familiar with my master?”

Champi grinned at my question.

“...Rather than knowing, we have a bad history.”

A bad history? How?

When I showed interest, Champi cleared her throat and raised her fingers to begin the story.

“How should I put it? That girl is pitiful too. How much do you know about her story?”

“Roughly. Just what’s told at Spring Peach Blossom.”

“Then I can tell you. If you mention this to anyone who doesn’t know, you’ll get arrested for heresy, so keep it in mind.”

Champi looked around once and spoke to me.

“Can you use magic? Something to block sound.”

Silent.

“Probably.”

“Someone we killed might have been a saint who saved hundreds of lives.”

Champi declared confidently.

“But hunters remember it like this: Killed one Flower. An evil person. That alone makes them heroes in history.”

“....”

“Then if we killed one Flower and the children they were responsible for starve to death?”

It’s a common story.

In the end, there was no absolute good or evil.

I knew that well too.

“What kind of thoughts should I have seeing that scene? Ah... I killed this Flower, and these kids died because of it. Should I atone for it for the rest of my life?”

Among the many professions in this world, the one with the highest probability of mental illness was undoubtedly being a hunter.

It’s common to lose comrades in dungeon accidents and often kill people due to dungeon crimes.

Among those who have reached S-rank, there was almost no one who hadn’t killed someone.

“Many people say being a hunter is the best job. Because everyone praises it. But it’s not.”

“Is that so?”

“We all know that. So we don’t hold each other accountable. Why? Because we’re all bastards anyway.”

Champi emphasized.

No matter the circumstances, the very act of becoming a hunter meant—

“...we are those who stepped on others to live well.”

I didn’t say anything.

It was the truth, and everyone was trying hard to ignore it.

I instinctively understood it too.

“One day, you’ll understand, kid.”

“....”

“Thanks to me, many people are alive. I once stopped a gate in the Pacific and saved 3,400 people.”

“Well done.”

“Well done, my ass.”

Champi crossed her legs. They didn’t reveal any sexiness at all.

She was staring at something outside the window.

A poster with S-rank hunters as advertising.

Looking at it, she laughed.

“That’s why I hate those bastards the most.”

Where she pointed, there was a poster of a woman with light green hair smiling kindly.

Spiritist. Elata.

Aralia Tree.

“They put up signs saying they’re good guys, knowing everything.”

“...They might really be good, or it could be marketing.”

I couldn’t make a quick judgment since I hadn’t met them.

“Aye, they’re managing their image. I haven’t seen a genuinely good person among them.”

Champi rudely shoved the last piece of cake into her mouth.

“In the end, everyone lives for themselves. Psychopath? They’d be the same in that situation.”

“...Haha.”

I laughed bitterly.

I felt like she was mocking the principles I had held until recently.

To truly become a good person as Champi described, you would need a real resolve and enough power to overturn the world.

Champi raised her coffee.

“Of course-”

She clinked her coffee with mine in a small toast.

“We should save as many people as we can.”

“Now you say that?”

“Enduring that contradiction is what it means to be a human and a hunter. Isn’t that damn cool?”

People didn’t usually say that out loud. But I understood.

I drank my coffee.

The bitter aroma of the beans mingled with the sweet vanilla syrup on my tongue.

“Are we a bit closer now?”

“To some extent.”

“Then give me your phone number. I’ll contact you if I need something. You can use my name around too.”

Was this how you expanded your network?

I thought she only had a cunning side, but she seemed to have her own standards.

Surprisingly meticulous.

Maybe all S-ranks were like this.

“From today, you’re my little brother. Got it?”

“Got it.”

I entered my number into the phone she held out.