"Let's go on a date."
That was the first thing Yoo Seodam heard as soon as he woke up.
When he opened his eyes, he could see a white skin and silver hair filling his vision. It was Taylor Nine. She was sitting on top of his stomach naked as she busily scrolled through her smartphone.
Yoo Seodam was speechless for a moment, but he forced a word out because he felt the need to ask Taylor some questions.
"Why are you naked?"
Taylor glanced at her body once and shrugged as if she didn't even care about it.
"I don’t know. Whenever I slept with you, I took my clothes off without realizing. It seems to be a habit.”
Yoo Seodam touched his upper body just to check something. As expected, he found that the shirt he was wearing last night was now gone.
“Then what about mine?”
“It’s also a habit.” As if nothing was wrong, Taylor answered brazenly.
Yoo Seodam was left speechless once again. And then, he pulled the blanket that was covering his lower body, wrapped it around Taylor’s body, and pushed her to the side.
“Are we going to do it?”
“Stop speaking nonsense and get up.” Yoo Seodam said.
It wasn't that he didn’t want to do it or that he found the whole situation awkward, but rather, he was just too tired. As soon as he returned from the destroyed world, he had to fly straight to Indonesia to attend the meeting.
And after a long night of thinking about many things and hugging Taylor in his arms for a long time, he woke up at 10 am. It was already long past the rush hour.
“By the way, why a date all of the sudden?”
“Man, lately you don’t have any time to meet me. That’s why this noona will do you a favor and spare some of my time to play with you. There are a lot of interesting movies these days, and sometimes you have to take some time off to live! Isn't that true?”
“But, you seem to have a lot of free time every day.”
“What are you talking about! Do you know how busy this noona is?”
"Is that so…"
Yoo Seodam shrugged.
Come to think of it, after his debut as a hunter 17 years ago, he had never taken any days off until he was diagnosed with a heart disease two years ago. And even after he was cured, he had no chance to take a break since he had to work hard as a protagonist hunter and had to build his guild. It could be said that he was now far busier than the day when he was only an ordinary F rank Hunter.
“Well, okay. I guess I can take some time off.”
“Why did you become obedient suddenly? What's wrong? Where did the old Yoo Seodam go?"
Yoo Seodam chuckled at her reaction. He only accepted it because the person was Taylor Nine. He had no one to enjoy that kind of leisure with other than her.
“Then let’s watch a movie or something.”
"Romance?"
"Hell no. A movie where everything breaks.” Taylor chuckled.
Even though they had never watched a movie together, both of them were well aware of each other's tastes. In fact, their tastes and personalities were almost the same, it was the biggest reason why they got along so well.
While Taylor was booking movie tickets on her smartphone, Yoo Seodam suddenly thought of Yekaterina. He could feel her state through his soul. She was currently on the verge of collapsing because she was extremely exhausted.
‘I should hurry up and take care of her.’
Waking up from the bed, Yoo Seodam got dressed and threw Taylor her underwear and shorts.
Right at that moment, the system suddenly spoke up.
‘Is that so? What is it?’
‘Well.. It’s okay.’
The system said so, but Yoo Seodam could get a few clues from those words.
‘The system always sets it with Earth as the centre.'
Yoo Seodam became more and more curious about her identity.
* * *
“I am dying!” Yekaterina said as she buried her face in her desk.
The black circles under her eyes were severe to the point it affected her overall beauty.
"I'm really sorry… It’s not that I deliberately returned late…"
I was aware that without me Yekaterina would die. I felt guilty even though I was late because of an error in the time difference.
"It’s okay, Because in the end you still returned. Hurry, please come here.” Yekaterina shook her head and smiled faintly.
I sat down on Yekaterina’s seat and let her sit on my lap. My original plan was to let her have her recharge session as we lay down on the sofa to maximize body contact. But she refused my plan as she had a lot of work to do.
“Ah!”
As expected, Yekaterina’s body shook the moment her body touched mine. If I remember correctly, she said that energy recharge was quite painful. It wasn’t really painful when there was still some spirit left in her body, but when her energy was close to rock bottom, she was particularly sensitive to soul communion.
“…..!”
Yekaterina bit her lips and curled up. Even though the contact was barely enough, she tried to move away from my body. I pulled her to my chest and embraced her deeply.
“Eugh…!”
“Does it hurt that much?”
“Oh, no…!”
Yekaterina answered as she took a deep breath. Then, I could feel her breathing become even. Then in her drowsy mumble, Yekaterina whispered. “Sometimes…please pay attention to me too.”
"Sorry…"
“I know that my presence is not that great compared to others… But I can't live without Seodam-ssi…"
“………”
Then Yekaterina weakly said another word.
“More…”
I felt uneasy for a moment and hurriedly asked.
"Hey. Are you still alive?”
“……..”
There was no answer. However, as I put my finger in front of her nose, I could feel her breath faintly. She had already fallen asleep.
“Huh? If you're going to sleep, why are you talking about working?”
Even though I said that, I couldn’t just wake her up. And I couldn't move either. So I sat still as I held her in my arms.
Then, after some time passed, the office door opened and the Spirit King entered. The Spirit King, who was wearing armor from head to toe, including a helmet, looks like an ordinary large burly person at first glance.
-Hyung-nim You're back!
“Uh…, yes. It has been awhile."
-I thought my Hyung-nim was already dead, so I already sent him away in my heart, but now I have to get my goodbye back! haha!
“This bastard…”
-It’s okay Hyung-nim! Because my heart is still burning hot.
A blue flame really burned from the Spirit King's chest.
“You only make my stomach burn.”
-Well! It was fun to reunite with you Hyung-nim, but I have a very important mission, so I'll have to leave.
"Please go quickly."
– Actually, I'm going to eat udon.
"I'm not curious."
– Well then!
After saying that, the Spirit King broke the window and jumped out.
‘Is he crazy?’
Boom!! As I heard the sound of him landing on the ground, I started to wonder whether my decision to give him the armor was correct.
Then, Ye Sa-hye enters the office. Her expression was calm as she looked at the broken windows.
“It's an everyday thing.”
"Is that so…"
But she was startled when she saw Yekaterina who was fast asleep in my arms.
“Wow, is she really asleep?”
"Uh yeah. Why?"
“Well, boss was recently suffering from severe insomn- No, I'd rather call it Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. She kept on saying she preferred to work during that time…"
Crazy. Just how much of a workaholic are you?
“For the past three days, she barely slept for three hours, so we tried to force her to sleep. But now that Gilma is here, she fell asleep right away.”
“……”
I had apologized to her earlier, but that didn't completely erase my guilt towards Yekaterina who fought against extreme fatigue, and worked hard for my guild. Yet I neglected her.
‘Am I really trash?’
Remembering Taylor Nine from last night, Aracelli, whom I had left behind because I had no other choice, and Yekaterina, who was sleeping soundly in my arms, somehow I could feel my heart ache. It wasn't intentional, but somehow, I thought I was doing something worse than trash.
“Whew…. Well then, I need to check her works when I’m not here."
I adjusted Yekaterina’s position into a more comfortable position and checked the computer.
“What is all this?” I asked no one in particular.
It was full of things that I didn't know.
[The 1st Magic Seminar Holding Plan Report….]
[About the Magic Symposium in 3 years time….]
[Cooperation of companies on the effectiveness of the essence dispenser is…]
[For the publication of textbooks, ‘YoRyob Mugong (遊獵懋功)' Ha Sunyoung's mugong in the Great Monster Warfare…]
When I checked the computer I realized a lot of things had happened when I was away.
First of all, the profession ‘Magician' was now officially recognized. And the plan for the establishment of a university for cultivating wizards, the so-called ‘Yekaterina's Tower', had already been completed. In addition, the essence dispenser for wizards had been collectively referred to as the ‘magic wand'.
And then, the joint action between Ha Sunyoung and Celeste was even more spectacular. They had removed the unnecessary movements from the original ‘Sunyoung Swordsmanship’ which mainly deals with humans and turned it into something that specialized in hunting the monsters.
Then from ‘Sunyoung Swordsmanship’ as the impetus, Murim created a new branch of martial arts which they called ‘YoRyob Mugong' (遊獵懋功) which mainly dealt against monster. The great thing about this mugong was the fact that it could be learned by anyone.
“So many things happened…”
To be honest, I don't know what else I should work on here.
Am I too slow? No, Yekaterina was way too fast in working on everything while I was away.
To be honest, before Yekaterina joined the guild, I had studied quite a lot.
In addition to the laws related to Korean hunters, I had begun accumulating a wide range of knowledge in case my guild members later became internationally active. I even went to a lawyer and studied for a few days regarding the ownership of supernatural intellectual property for magic and martial arts.
Not only that, after receiving investment from several companies and investors, I went directly to Ryu Jin-soo, who had been active in guild business for longer than me, to learn how to not get exploited.
But still, compared to Yekaterina, who not only looked after the guild but also poured all her passion into it, the things I had done were nothing.
“It’s really good…. To be honest, I have nothing to do now.”
When I said that, Ye Sa-hye opened her eyes wide and said “What do you mean you don't have work to do, Gilma-nim?”
"Uh? No, I just-”
“Weren’t magic and mugong was something you secured, Gilma-nim?”
"Uh..yeah that’s true.”
“Do you know how much trouble we have in developing all of them without Gilma-nim?”
“…..”
I do not know.
No, I never instructed them to do so in the first place. I can't ask for anything more as long as they get stronger and survive. By the way… is there anyone currently hunting properly in Another League?
‘Just what is this place? A university, a dojo, or a guild?’
Then Ye Sa-hye spoke once again and stopped me from trailing off in my mind.
“So, please help even for a little bit.”
“On what?”
“Limitless development, possibilities, utilization, reorganization and generalization of mugong.”
Then Ye Sa-hye picked up her smartphone and showed it to me.
It shows Celeste’s Live streaming. She was currently teaching about body strengthening techniques and it was being watched by 90.000 viewers.
“Did you know that there is another person who has been waiting for Gilma-nim to come back?”
“Is it Celeste?”
"Yes. But as soon as Gilma-nim came back, you’ve been very busy, so she didn't even come to visit in fear of disturbing you.”
I didn't know… No, maybe I knew.
Now the people waiting for me were more than I thought.
“So, please go see her.”