TDLHRH 8

International Hunter Association.

As its name suggests, it was an organization operated as an international entity. Since hunters were an irreplaceable human resource, the moment they joined, they became individuals who didn’t belong to any single country.

Before the gates started appearing, they might have been simply regarded as refugees, but with the power hunters wielded and the banner of world peace they carried, Association members were treated as VIPs in every country.

In the early days, when the Hunter Association system wasn’t yet well-established, there was hostility and oppression directed toward ordinary employees, rather than hunters with power. However, the Association issued an official statement that they would withdraw from any country where such discrimination was uncovered. From then on, at least outwardly, no one dared to insult them.

The Association didn’t stop there. Through textbooks and various media outlets, they engaged in a PR campaign that eventually made being an Association member the #1 career aspiration for youth.

Their status, image, and responsibilities were solid.

In short, no matter how influential Haerang was as a guild leader in Korea, he couldn’t afford to act recklessly against the Association.

Haerang let out a quiet sigh and brought out a prepared excuse, disguised as an answer, that he’d been intending to use when responding to the Association’s summons.

While the Association was undoubtedly powerful, to Haerang, the safety and peace of Horang mattered far more than any penalty they could impose.

“As you can see, that gate returnee is my family. As far as I know, the Association protocol states that if the returnee is a family member, you can take them without formalities as long as you visit the Association within 48 hours to complete the procedures. Am I wrong?”

Though his face still showed signs of exhaustion, his hair was unkempt, and he was wearing pajamas, Haerang’s voice carried a weight of maturity that rendered everything else irrelevant.

The problem, however, was that Horang was still by his side.

“Wow, you sound like such an old man. You’ve aged a lot, huh?”

“Noona, please.”

“Azz- you kin zee, the gate ree-turnee is my fam-ily. Ugh, so cringe.”

Horang wiggled her upper lip and mimicked his words in the most irritating way possible, leaving Haerang covering his face with one hand.

Having a sister who looked 21 but acted 11 was, admittedly, a little embarrassing.

Haerang let out a sigh far longer and deeper than before, then, with a weary expression, spoke to Jin.

“I’ll visit the Association tomorrow—or rather, later today. So please, leave now.”

“Understood. I’ll see you next time….”

Jin, seemingly shocked by the sight of a woman around his age acting so childishly, couldn’t bring himself to push further and reluctantly agreed.

Although Haerang noticed the lingering doubt in Jin’s drawn-out reply—“Wait, did he just say noona…?”—he couldn’t think of a way to address it, so he simply nodded lightly, turning away.

But then, something caught his eye, and he froze.

Before he went to bed, his front yard had been spotless. Now, it looked as though there was… a car—or what used to be one.

Judging from the back, it was undoubtedly the car he recognized, but the front was so grotesquely mangled it felt like he’d stepped into a junkyard he’d never visited.

Haerang shifted his gaze to Jin, who silently stared at Horang, who was calmly admiring the mana streetlight nearby.

“…….”

“…….”

“The Guild will compensate for the car.”

“Understood….”

* * *

Unable to fall asleep, the Baek siblings spent the morning idly eating toast Haerang had toasted and brought over.

Considering the amount of work piled up in the guild, Haerang should have headed to his study immediately to go through documents.

However, simply chatting lightly with Horang made it feel like the deep scars in his heart from ten years ago were slowly starting to heal.

So he decided to forgo the paperwork and stay by her side.

The car… the car can be compensated for. As long as no one dies… Wait, what am I even thinking?

Haerang shook off the creeping self-rationalization that was trying to intrude into the life of justice and integrity he’d worked hard to uphold, sealing countless gates and defeating monsters.

As Horang sat on the sofa, using only the backrest like a true Korean, Haerang looked at the top of her black head and reluctantly opened his mouth.

“Noona, you shouldn’t… dent other people’s cars like that.”

“What? Don’t mumble. Speak up.”

“You shouldn’t… No, just don’t break anything!”

“Ah, jeez. Why are you yelling?”

Momentarily distracted by the drama on TV, Horang finally turned to look at Haerang.

“She’s the one who told me to speak up…”

Haerang muttered inwardly, then decided he needed to start the conversation quickly while he still had her attention.

“Noona, I don’t know what kind of world you lived in, but here, you can’t just break or dent things as you please. Especially people with awakened abilities like hunters—they get extra penalties even for minor offenses.”

“What are you talking about? Isn’t that obvious? Are you treating me like some Joseon Dynasty relic just because my memory’s a bit hazy?”

“Then why’d you do it earlier? It’s not like you were trying to bring that car into our house. There was no reason to leave it so mangled.”

“……”

Even though Horang saw him as her younger brother, Haerang, who was nearing thirty, felt uneasy imagining a guy five years his junior walking such a long distance.

As someone who understood better than anyone how rough and challenging it was to start young in the hunter world, Haerang couldn’t shake his concern.

But for Horang, who hadn’t worked as a hunter and had long lost track of counting her own age, the difference of several millennia felt too vast to care about. It was like watching a documentary about ancient mitochondria struggling to survive.

And considering that this “mitochondria” had woken Haerang up in the middle of the night, she could even find it amusing.

Still, seeing that Haerang seemed worried, Horang decided to ease his concerns with some cheerful chatter.

“He wouldn’t walk the whole way, would he? He probably flagged a taxi on the main road.”

“Noona, hunters can only use hunter-exclusive taxis. And they can only be summoned through an app.”

“Then he can just call one through the app.”

“…Hunters from the Association don’t carry phones.”

“What? Then how do they work?”

“They have their own devices. A few years ago, an unregistered hunter hacked into the Association’s communication system and hijacked a gate. Since then, the law changed, and they’re only allowed to carry basic devices for work-related communication during working hours.”

“Wow, that sucks for them. But that’s not my problem, right?”

“Noona!”

While Haerang’s expression darkened, growing more sympathetic toward Jin with every word, Horang was merely intrigued by the new information.

The resolve she had felt earlier to reassure her brother had long since evaporated.

“The world’s really advanced, huh? Back in the day, people would refuse hunters rides, and others would die because of it.”

“……”

“Speaking of which, they still haven’t caught those hunter criminals? Back then, I couldn’t even go to school because of them. What was that serial killer’s name… Choi Kangjoo?”

Before Haerang could catch up with the sudden shift in conversation, Horang started rambling, pouring out memories that had just popped into her mind.

In the end, Haerang gave up on responding and simply stared at her.

The situation didn’t make sense—Horang was the one who wrecked the car, but he was the only one feeling guilty. Haerang barely held back a sigh as he tried to steer the conversation back on track.

“Anyway, putting him aside for a moment, you can’t go around destroying other people’s property. Got it?”

“But he’s the one who—”

“He’s the one who what?”

“He’s the one who tried to wake you up. You fell asleep late after crying all night, so I figured you’d be tired if you didn’t get enough rest.”

“…You wrecked someone’s car because you thought I’d be tired?”

“Yeah. Why? Was it noisy? I even set up a sound barrier.”

“Haah…”

Haerang’s sigh deepened, seeming to sink into the floor and down into the ocean depths.

The fact that she had dented a hunter-exclusive car—known for being resistant even to monster claws—just to let him sleep a little longer was bad enough.

But the consideration she’d shown by setting up a sound barrier made it even worse.

Consideration—good, very good—but the problem was that all that consideration was directed solely at Haerang, completely missing everyone else.

Society, at its core, is a community built through mutual care and understanding among its members, isn’t it?

Yet Horang seemed to believe her actions were entirely blameless.

No, she outright said so.

No matter how the world turns upside down, holes tear open in the sky, or monsters casually appear on main roads, society adapts and evolves—it doesn’t vanish.

For Horang, Haerang, and their family to live well together, Horang’s socialization was desperately needed.

Haerang slipped “Attending Returnee Center lectures” into the very first part of the meticulously crafted plan he’d made last night while crying for Horang’s sake and drew bold red lines under it.

I’m so happy my sister’s back… So why does my chest keep feeling so heavy…?”

Whether or not she knew the complexity of his emotions, Horang was once again engrossed in her drama, commenting on it like an overly invested viewer of a messy soap opera.

“Why on earth does she like him? If it were me, I’d rip out that jerk’s guts and…”

“Haah…”

***

Haerang and Horang were now walking together down a wide-open street.

No, they’d definitely started walking together after stepping out at the same time, but Horang kept slowing down, distracted by the scenery around her.

After repeatedly glancing back to check on her, Haerang finally reached their destination. Standing upright in front of the building, he looked down at her and gave one last set of instructions.

“Noona, seriously, you can’t break anything here. You can talk informally if you want, but don’t curse, okay? You remember the promise we made, right?”

“Hey, do I look like a seven-year-old kid to you? Quit nagging…”

It might’ve been better if she’d actually gone back to being seven… No, no, that’s not right. She came back safe and sound, and that’s all that matters.

Haerang could feel the list of things he couldn’t say aloud growing longer by the second.

“…At least nothing should go wrong during the registration process, right?”

Already feeling overwhelmed, Haerang squeezed his eyes shut.

Unlike him, however, Horang was absolutely elated just to be standing here under the bright, open sky with her younger brother.

The blue, cloudless sky, devoid of any red hues, brought a renewed sense of reality every time she looked at it.

And unlike the loyal retainers who had worked alongside her in the past, Haerang was someone she had to protect—her frail younger brother.

That realization filled her with an overwhelming sense of responsibility, making her heart swell.

With those feelings in mind, Haerang seemed all the more endearing.

On top of that, her mood soared even higher now that she’d escaped from Haerang’s endless nagging during the car ride—from home to this mysterious building—about what she could and couldn’t do.