The Huntress, your Knight next door

Note: Chapter 13 had a missing part, I’m sorry, I added it. Recommended read the last part of Chapter 13 to continue.

The goods obtained from robbing the crows were already worth tens or hundreds of times them money she had on hand. It was not even a problem to give it away so Jin-hee handed the money to Kaon with a light heart.

Although mana did not work on his limbs, draconian’s monstrous resilience restored his body to a level where it did not interfere with daily life.

It was a characteristic of tolerance of fire, where the more sunlight was received, the faster the recovery was.

Kaon politely accepted the money.

“…Do I loot food from a convenience store?”

“…Huh?”

What are you talking about? 

Eun-jung, Jin-hee, and Chung-ha looked back at Kaon at the same time. He was so tall that everyone had their heads raised.

“Just tell me the location and I will be back soon.”

I will slit the neck of the enemy general, is it an illusion to hear like so?

“…Chung-ha, please.”

“…Come with me, brother.”

Chung-ha got up from his seat with a distorted face. 

“Brother, you are still hurt right? I will help you carry the groceries.”

“……I am fine.”

No, I’m not okay with it. I don’t want to watch a YouTube video about a 190cm giant attacking a convenience store after sending him alone to buy groceries. Jin-hee asked for a favor and sent Kaon along with Chung-ha.

“Ha ha ha…he’s an interesting person.”

“……”

Kaon seemed to have no common sense about modern times. The thought of teaching complex modern common sense to that obstinate race already gave her a headache. After Jin-hee tried to forget about Kaon, she looked at Eun-jung again. The teacher explained her situation with a more relaxed expression, as if her tension had been relieved thanks to the situation from a moment ago.

“…In fact, when our nursery school went bankrupt, it was decided that another corporation would take over. That changed when Min-ha had wings sprouted from her back.”

“Wasn’t it like that since she was born?” 

“Yes. Min-ha’s back sprouted wings when she was six years old. Therefore…It was four years ago.”

Min-ha was a precocious child from the time she entered nursery school. Although she was young, she was calm, and she sometimes seemed more grown-up than her own brother.

That is why all the teachers at the orphanage loved Min-ha, and she was popular among the other children as well. Such family-like happiness was broken when Min-ha was six and Chung-ha was seven.

Wings sprouted from Min-ha’s back, drawing attention from those around her.

“At first, I thought she might be a Hunter. With girls, the age to feel mana is early, so I heard that there are people who use mana at the age of six. When she gets into elementary school she can get an official hunter certification, so I thought I’d check it out then……but, rumors about Min-ha spread all the way to Sillim Station.”

At that time, the Crows were an organization emerging as an upcoming powerhouse in Sillim Station. The executives, led by the Boss who was an A-class hunter, quickly subdued the gangsters around them, and with tremendous financial power, they were listed as one of the four major organizations.

After hearing rumors about Min-ha, the Crows came and took over the orphanage at will, examined Min-ha’s appearance, and soon expressed their intentions to sponsor the nursery. 

Originally, it was a situation where they would have to be disbanded and the students scattered, or another corporation should have continued the orphanage, but for some reason, the institution was maintained by the power of the Crows.

Eun-jung said that it was a problem with the public officials on the side of Sillim. After Gates appeared, government offices in Korea were either corrupt or declining to the extent that little could be done.

The current situation was so bad that no sanctions were imposed despite the rampant black market in Sillim. This was an era were public authority had no power, and those with money and military strength dominate.

From then on, it was a story that Jin-hee knew. The Crows kicked out all the other employees and started dealing directly with the children, and now they even kidnap Min-ha forcibly.

“…I have something I want to ask you.”

While listening to her story, Jin-hee asked what she had been curious about since their first meeting with Chung-ha.

“Why didn’t the Crows kidnap Min-ha right away and wait until now? They would have taken her when they first took control of the orphanage.”

The Crows was a criminal organization. An organization powerful enough to kidnap children one by one as if enjoying a park walk. Just looking at the number of dead people in their dungeon, you could tell how dirty and cruel they were at once. However, those people did not kidnap Min-ha until now? Even though it was obvious why they sponsored the orphanage.

“…That.”

Eun-jung chose her words for a moment and quietly looked at Jin-hee.

Jin-hee’s impression was not reliable even if Eun-jung tried to expressed it as well as she could. Black hair, which was loosely tied back, languid dry eyes filled with unknown emotions. She was objectively beautiful, but even so, she was far from friendly.

However, she was a lifesaver who helped Chung-ha and Min-ha. Eun-jung said the truth that she had never told anyone else before.

“…Actually, Chung-ha and Min-ha were not the only ones special.”

“Then?”

“…In this orphanage, all the students have some kind of talented.”

Eun-jung closed her eyes tightly, and continued the story.

Garam Orphanage was a special place. This orphanage, which had few children but was lively, had a hidden secret, and that was the fact that all of the children were talented.

This fact, which only the director and a few teachers knew, was a secret unreported to authorities.

“After the gates happened, it was a time of uproar due to the indiscriminate use of force by hunters. The director decided to keep it a secret to avoid drawing attention to the children.”

Gates were created about 20 years ago, and it was about 10 years ago that people with special abilities started to appear. At that time, about 5 years had passed since the Hunter system was established, and it was a time were society had entered a transitional period in terms of policy.

It was a noisy time not only in Korea but also around the world, such as the crimes of armed hunters, the hunter certification of criminals, and the appearance of groups seeking to subvert the state.

The bill to prevent current ex-convicts from being certified as hunters was also proposed at that time.

In recent years, Hunters are known as celebrities or heroes, but Hunters at that time were a symbol of fear. 

As such, how terrifying it was to have a power that science couldn’t understand. The director of Garam Orphanage realized this and decided to hide the truth of the children with special abilities.

It was a popular belief that this ability gradually weakens as one goes through puberty and becomes an adult. Scholars who studied mana and magical power found out that the use of this ability does not follow mana, and that it is controlled by individual talents and emotions, and defined that most people with special abilities lose them when they become adults.

This ability, which reaches its peak in elementary school, almost disappears around high school.

So, the director thought that when the children became adults and left the orphanage, they would be able to live without any problems.

Surprisingly, however, children with special abilities continued to appear at Garam Orphanage.

No one knows why. Was it a coincidence or was it intentional? Eun-jung, who witnessed the scene where all the children who had been abandoned by someone became people with special abilities, thought that this was either God’s will or the Devil’s trick.

And the second surprise was.

“All the children in our orphanage…they haven’t lost their abilities. Rather, it got stronger.”

When someone realized the ability to move things, they were able to lift a spoon, but now they are strong enough to operate a lock or lift a dumbbell. It was a small difference, but it was bizarre when it came to an ability that supposedly peaked in puberty and gradually lost its power.

“The crows guessed there must be something in our orphanage.”

“…How did the Crows think that there would be people with special abilities in the orphanage? Didn’t they only recognize Min-ha?”

“…A person who worked here…told them. He was a student working part-time. Then he awoke and got a job as a hunter at Sillim Station.”

It was a place where Jin-hee passed by rather blandly, but Sillim Station was a dangerous area for hunters. It was a place where all kinds of criminals and illegal residents roam the streets, and there are also many dangerous gates of the special management type. He became bold as a rookie hunter, but eventually, like Jin-hee, he was captured by a group of poor quality and became a ‘slave’.

Only then did Jin-hee learned about the slave.

“I don’t know where it’s being sold. But… I heard it was a dungeon inside a gate.”

The story was that one of the two organizations, excluding the Crows and the Miners organization, used slaves as workers. That’s expected. The fact that there are people who want to capture slaves means that there are also people who use them.

Anyway, he became a slave and ended up giving information about the orphanage to the Crows in order to live. He was young and close to the students, so he unofficially knew the secret the director wanted to keep.

That’s how the Crows became obsessed with this particular orphanage, and as a result they watched it for a long time.

“You could also think… that Min-ha was the major cause for this strange orphanage.”

“…Heavens.”

Only then did the puzzles fit perfectly. Jin-hee leaned back in her chair and covered her mouth.

Yes, it made sense.

Fairies have the power to calm the emotions of those around them. It was not for nothing that nobles make fairies their children’s playmates, just as she came to her aid during when she was Bazette. Fairies, who have the power to soothe emotions and suppress negative thoughts, are good friends for children.

‘It was a role that helped me pass through puberty well.’

At that time, she thought only that much. However, looking at it now, she didn’t have an ability that suited the subject matter of ‘Abilities controlled by emotions’.

Min-ha has being at Garam Orphanage since she was born. Even before her wings appeared, she possessed the talent of a fairy and had the ability to warmly care for the emotions of those around her, which became a special driving force to preserve and grow those abilities.

The results of the development of such abilities was the power of this little girl, it suppresses the characteristics of puberty, which consumes emotions meaninglessly, and embrace the worn out emotions as they go on to become adults.

The Crows only recently noticed that fact and kidnapped Min-ha.

‘So this is the backstory of the billions of dollars deal he offered me.’

The leader of the Crows was not trying to make money from the by-products of the fairies, but he wanted to invest in this ‘power to grow abilities’.

‘…I did well to kill him.’

A new thought came to Jin-hee, if she wasn’t there, he would have planned to use Min-ha to turn innocent children into super powered weapons. Did he say that strong subordinates are always welcome? That would also be applied for children. Seeing how they treated Chung-ha as their subordinate, it was obvious what they were thinking.

“Does anyone else know about this?”

“I don’t think so. Because the Crows took Min-ha as soon as they noticed it.”

“Anyone else beside the Crows?”

“Me and…and probably the director who has already passed away.”