Hunter Academy’s Battle God

A blue communication crystal sat atop the table showing YuSung and Adela holding hands. Aris smiled as she looked at them.

'It's good to be young.'

She was smiling as if she were looking at her own child, and she looked over at Arden. "How does it feel to see your granddaughter smile?"

Arden couldn't answer Aris's question. He just silently went through his emotions while covering his face with his hands.

"That reaction is just making me flustered… You end up tearing up more easily with age…"

She silently walked toward Arden and stroked his hair. Although they looked like father and daughter, they were, in reality, friends.

"I've shown you something I shouldn't have. This is definitely because of my age… Still, it's been 12 years since I've seen her smile."

Aris couldn't joke anymore. "Arden… I used to be surprised at the thought of you, a playboy, building a family. I couldn't believe it."

Aris looked at Arden's face. Arden was her happiest party member. That's why the sadness he ended up facing was even more tragic.

"When I saw how happy you were with your family, I changed my thoughts. You saved the world, after all, so you have the right to be happy."

Aris smiled bitterly at Arden.

"Don't blame yourself anymore for not being able to save your family… That's not your fault. If there's a God, that just means he was too cruel. You've always done your best," Aris said with sincerity. "Forgive yourself."

Arden couldn't answer for a while. He just silently looked at the communication crystal.

No matter how much he looked into it, the communication crystal wouldn't show the scene he wanted. Just like one couldn't pick up spilled water, the communication crystal couldn't show the past.

"It was a hell-like time… Whenever I woke up, all I could think about was how I wanted to turn back in time. About how, if I were there, things would've been different."

Arden gestured at the communication crystal.

"Maybe I wanted to see that kid’s smile so much to save myself… and not just for her."

"Your problem is that, unlike how you look, you think too much. What's wrong with wanting to see your pretty granddaughter smile?" Aris replied.

"How mysterious. You're pretty and a good person. To think that WonHak would reject you… What a weird guy," Arden playfully replied back.

Aris barely managed to keep herself composed after hearing that, but based on how her jaw was tensing, she was clearly angry.

"Oh~ Who are you saying was rejected? Even if you brought a truck full of that guy who is all muscles, from the body to the brain, I wouldn't accept it."

"A truck full of Yu WonHak… Just imagining that is scary… It should be possible to reach the Tower's peak with a truck like that," he mumbled.

Aris was still stuck on the word 'rejected'. "It seems like there's a misunderstanding. I'll say it again. I never confessed, nor did he reject me."

"Haha! I was joking. It's just that I thought I saw you confessing to him."

Arden had gotten on her bad side.

She laughed and pointed her wand toward Arden's neck. "I don't remember that."

"I… I see. N-now that I think about it, it seems like it never happened."

But unlike what she said, Aris remembered it well.

[Yu WonHak, do you have time today?]

[No. I have mountain training today.]

[O-okay… Then never mind.]

She had been in her twenties.

[We finished the subjugation in just a week… Should we go back together? I have lodging in Japan.]

[No. I have mountain training today.]

Even in her thirties, Yu WonHak was a man who felt like a wooden statue.

'Of course, thanks to that, he ended up becoming a monster capable of breaking a stone with his finger…'

Aris was really hurt when WonHak closed himself off in the mountains without letting a soul know beforehand.

'To think such a normal disciple would come out under WonHak’s tutelage…'

When she saw Adela and YuSung, she noticed they were similar.

'Well… it seems like neither master nor student understands a woman's feelings.'

Of course, having fallen for someone like that was something Aris and Lorelei had in common.

* * *

* * *

Although it looked like a normal school on the outside, the interior of the club room was too luxurious. Marble was everywhere, and classical music echoed through it.

~ ♪ ~ ♬

The calm club room's atmosphere changed with YuSung's return.

"E-eek… She's going to turn me into ice flakes…" Amy trembled in fear.

"What's going on…?" EunAh seemed annoyed.

"H-hello… If you haven't eaten yet, there's some curry left…" Sumire took out the rice.

They were all staring at a new face.

"It's okay."

Adela Ortensia, Gaon's previous top-ranker. She was Italy's representative through Bianca Academy.

EunAh used to insist that she was Adela's rival, so she was well aware of her.

"Adela, what brings you here? And why are you with YuSung?"

BZZT.

Sparks poured out of EunAh's eyes.

YuSung was returning late after having finished subjugating the dragon, and Adela was next to him, so EunAh had a suspicion.

"Don't tell me… were you with him all along…?"

"Please, don't misunderstand. I'm here because of this artifact."

Tap. Swoosh!

As Adela touched her Pocket, blue particles began gathering, and a red egg appeared.

"This…!" Sumire exclaimed in surprise.

"It's an artifact I got after finishing Sardonyx's subjugation. It's probably a dragon's egg."contemporary romance

To think a student would obtain a dragon's egg as a reward. YuSung spoke about it way too casually.

"I need Adela to protect the egg."

"Really? Hmm, that's great… so this is a dragon's egg…"

Surprised, EunAh touched the egg and suddenly realized something.

"Then that means you were with YuSung all this time! And if it's just using your Trait, you didn’t need to come here!"

EunAh had faced Adela, so she knew how long she could use her Trait for. If Adela wanted, she could keep it going for a month. There was no need for her to be there.

"What are you thinking?!" EunAh's remarks were sharper than expected.

Protecting the egg was certainly just an excuse. In reality, she just wanted to stay with YuSung a bit longer.

"That's…"

As the situation became unfavorable for Adela, she just ignored EunAh and silently blushed.

"Why are you blushing?!" EunAh shouted like a cat with its hair on end.

"Ah, also, the Tower's 10th floor has a member restriction, so we're going with Adela."

YuSung wasn't very perceptive of such things and ended up pouring oil on the fire.

"There's something strange… You… didn't stay together, right?" EunAh asked, suspicious. Her scary attitude wasn't affecting Adela.

"I'm not sure…"

While the previous 1st of Gaon and the 2nd glared at each other, YuSung smiled and shook his head. "No. We stayed in different places. Sumire is the only one I’ve stayed the night with."

At YuSung's shocking confession, Sumire tried to get up. "Ah, that's right! I forgot that there's water boiling…"

She tried to disappear quietly after saying something awkward.

"Where are you going?!" EunAh quickly grabbed her. "You're next!"

Sumire was forced to sit next to her. On the other hand, it seemed like Adela's appearance had activated a trauma in Amy.

"Adela… the ice is cold… I don't want to become an ice flake…"

Memories of her being frozen two seconds after the fight began were deeply engraved in Amy’s mind.

EunAh began organizing the messy situation.

"First, YuSung, you obtained the egg in the raid, and Adela poured her cold air into the egg to protect it, right?"

Nod.

As YuSung nodded, EunAh narrowed her eyes even more and asked, "And because you two got closer, you asked her to go to the Tower with you."

"Yes."

EunAh looked at Sumire. She didn't think that anything had happened based on their personalities, but she couldn't help but feel that she'd lost.

'How dare they… Without me…'

Sumire had gone on a date with him more than two times if they included that time in Japan.

'EunAh is scary today…' Sumire was thankful that EunAh didn't know that. She had seen in real time how EunAh became more aggressive when YuSung wasn't there.

Still, there was more shocking news.

BZZT.

The club's automatic door suddenly opened…

"L-long time no see." For some reason, Lee SiWoo was blushing. "It's my first time seeing you all in Korea."

Sakura was clinging to his arm for some reason. EunAh couldn't understand what was going on anymore.

"Everything's a mess," she mumbled in a low voice.

done.co