Chapter 106

The atmosphere turned dreadful in an instant.

“......”

“......”

Tap.

Esther silently placed a hand around her coffee cup, sending faint ripples across the surface.

With that small movement, an extraordinary scene unfolded on the top floor of the Magic Tower.

“L-Let me buy you a gift.”

“What?”

“I-I’ve suddenly developed an overwhelming desire to give you something, Kiryeo-ssi. So... could you spare me a little time?”

Who could have imagined that the day would come when one of Korea’s most powerful S-Class hunters would cling so desperately to an F-Class Awakener?

“Everything I’m saying is for your own good, Kiryeo-ssi! This is the age of the internet. Once a photograph is taken, it can spread across the entire world!”

“Yes?”

“And what kind of disaster do you think will happen if someone suspected of being an S-Class hunter holds a press conference dressed like that...?”

“Esther-ssi?”

“There is a limit to frugality! How could you even consider standing in front of the cameras wearing those clothes?”

Esther shot to her feet.

She would buy him something suitable immediately.

“Oh, there’s really no need. If my clothes are that much of a problem, I can simply go out and buy something new myself.”

Kiryeo politely rejected the curse sorcerer’s offer. He had no desire to owe her yet another favor.

But Esther remained resolute.

‘I can’t trust you to choose them yourself!’

The chicken-themed sweatshirt Kim Kiryeo was wearing had completely destroyed whatever confidence she might have had in his sense of style.

“Please let me buy you some clothes. I’m begging you.”

“W-Why are you going this far?”

“Oh, that’s right! My brother runs a clothing store, so I can get everything cheaply. You don’t need to worry about the price...! All right?”

Esther continued pleading until Kim Kiryeo finally surrendered the right to choose his clothes.

Before the press conference, she would dress him in an outfit selected entirely by her.

Meanwhile, the assistant who had been silently watching from the corner arrived at a conclusion of her own.

‘How frightening.’

‘Hunters earn good money, don’t they? To think someone would deliberately choose to wear something like that...’

The Magic Tower secretary clicked her tongue inwardly and followed her employer out of the room.

‘Well, S-Class Awakeners are often eccentric.’

.

.

.

When they arrived at a boutique in Apgujeong, Kiryeo—who had never before entered an Earth clothing store—looked around with open curiosity.

A moment later, the manager came forward to greet them.

“Welcome.”

His hair was neatly swept back with pomade, and silver-framed glasses rested upon his nose.

At first glance, it was difficult to believe he was related to Esther at all.

“Oppa!”

“I told you not to act as though you know me when we’re outside.”

“Today, I’ve never been more grateful that you work in fashion! You’ve truly saved me.”

However, the name tag pinned to his chest made the connection somewhat easier to understand.

[Seo Yohan]

The Seo family of Dalseong.

And a religiously inspired given name.

It was rare for both traits to overlap so clearly in a single person.

‘He comes from an S-Class bloodline, but this one appears to be an ordinary non-Awakener.’

Kiryeo observed the store owner with interest.

At that moment, Esther called out from beside him.

“Hunter Kim Kiryeo?”

“Ah, yes.”

“Choose anything you like from this section. I’ll try to take your preferences into account.”

He had grown up on a planet where clothing culture had never developed very far, so fashion held little interest for him.

“Hmm.”

With an indifferent expression, Kiryeo began sliding hangers aside one after another.

Then, after a while, he stopped and pointed toward a mannequin standing in the distance.

“Do you sell that as well?”

The mannequin wore a plain black suit without a single pattern or ornament.

“Huh? You like that one?”

“Perhaps.”

“So you prefer formal clothing. I wouldn’t have guessed.”

Esther could not conceal her surprise.

With so many options available, choosing a classic suit immediately suggested that he possessed a reasonably refined eye.

How, then, had he ended up with that dreadful promotional sweatshirt?

‘And why does he own five of them?’

She briefly pressed a hand to her forehead before recovering her smile.

“If you like suits, you may choose as many as you want. But are you certain about that particular one? It’s so conservative that it looks more appropriate for a job interview.”

The F-Class hunter showed no interest in any of the alternatives she presented.

But he had not chosen the mannequin’s outfit because it suited his own taste.

‘This is the closest thing here to what Kim Kiryeo’s corpse was wearing.’

It was a choice made with the body’s original owner in mind.

‘If he wore something like this until the day he died, it must have been his favorite style.’

For the real Kim Kiryeo, the black suit had effectively become burial clothing.

So the alien inhabiting his remains chose to wear something the deceased man had apparently favored in life—a small gesture of respect toward the departed soul.

Of course, no one else would ever recognize the meaning behind it.

But surely a magician ought to observe a certain degree of courtesy.

‘When one inherits a corpse, it is only proper to honor its original owner’s wishes, even in some small way.’

The store employees retrieved identical pieces from the stockroom.

All that remained was to confirm the sizing.

“Here, try all of these. Oh, and since it’s cold outside, this coat should be perfect. Take this one too!”

“Try them on? Here?”

“There’s a changing room over there.”

Esther pointed toward a partition at the other side of the store, then turned back to the racks.

Now that they had come this far, she was determined to find as many clothes as possible that suited him.

“Hunter Esther.”

Several minutes later, however, his voice interrupted her search.

The sound of men’s dress shoes echoed from the direction of the fitting room.

“The clothes fit, but the shoes feel somewhat...”

Kim Kiryeo approached wearing a complete three-piece suit.

The moment Esther saw him, she gasped.

In truth, she would have welcomed almost anything that replaced the atrocious sweatshirt.

Still, the transformation was far more dramatic than she had expected.

As the saying went, clothes truly did make the man.

“Oh my goodness! You look like an actor. A real actor!”

Esther showered him with praise.

The secretary beside her also stared at Kiryeo as though entranced.

“He really does look like an actor...”

“Right? I told you.”

Kim Kiryeo, however, failed to understand what was so complimentary about the comparison.

To an alien whose knowledge of Earth culture remained incomplete, an actor was simply a person who performed in plays or other forms of entertainment.

‘Why are they suddenly saying I look like someone who performs onstage?’

Kiryeo fell silent.

The interrupted discussion resumed only after the store manager returned with another pair of shoes.

“I checked the available options, and these should suit you best.”

“Is that so?”

He had no personal preferences anyway, so there was little reason to prolong the process.

Changing clothes was troublesome enough.

Kiryeo simply put on whatever he was given, while Esther nodded in satisfaction and made her way toward the checkout counter.

“Oppa, come here for a moment!”

But the payment process, which Kiryeo had expected to be simple, dragged on longer than anticipated.

‘Hmm?’

Esther pulled the store owner aside and spoke with him for some time.

Left with nothing else to do, Kim Kiryeo wandered around the shop.

He idly examined a display of belts, then glanced toward the women’s clothing section.

“Sir, will you be leaving the store in that outfit? Shall I remove the tags for you?”

“Yes, thank you.”

As the clerk approached and began cutting away the labels, Kim Kiryeo attempted to check the price of the suit he was wearing.

But just as he reached for the removed tag, a small disturbance interrupted him.

Rrrring.

Someone’s phone began to ring.

“That’s mine. I’ll take the call, so use this card to pay for everything.”

“Everything you selected?”

“Yes. All of it.”

Esther checked the caller’s name and answered immediately.

“Hello~”

Yet something about the call seemed wrong.

“Yes?”

As the conversation continued, Esther’s expression rapidly darkened.

“Yes. Yes, I understand...”

The call ended soon afterward.

Rustle.

Esther lowered the phone from her ear, her face blank with shock.

Seeing her reaction, Kiryeo asked casually,

“What was that about?”

Esther’s gaze shifted uneasily before she answered.

“It was the guild’s administrative office.”

“I see.”

“To be precise, they called to tell me that Jung Haseong is appearing on the news right now.”

There was nothing particularly unusual about that.

S-Class hunters appeared in news broadcasts almost every day.

“Is that so?”

Kiryeo asked out of simple curiosity, wondering why the matter seemed to trouble her.

“First, I was told that Jung Haseong has announced his return to active hunter duty following this incident...”

“Already?”

“That isn’t the important part. The problem is that he mentioned you during the interview.”

Who could have expected such an answer?

‘Me?’

Kiryeo’s eyes widened at the news that the nation’s highest-ranked hunter had spoken about him publicly.

Esther was equally shaken.

She had been restless ever since receiving the call.

“Kiryeo-ssi, did you already know Hunter Jung Haseong?”

“Didn’t you see the articles circulating online?”

“I-I can’t possibly keep track of every rumor the public posts.”

“Ah.”

“In any case, answer that first. Do you genuinely know Jung Haseong?”

Did he know him?

“I do. Why?”

Kim Kiryeo scratched the back of his neck and answered with obvious reluctance.

The moment Esther heard him, she blurted out her next question, visibly flustered.

“Then tell me exactly what happened between the two of you.”

“Yes?”

“Because Jung Haseong just announced on live television that he intends to burn you.”

.

.

.

[[● LIVE] YTV News Mobile Broadcast ┃ Interview with Jung Haseong]

[Reporter: Thank you for all your efforts during this recent S-Class dungeon break.]

[Jung Haseong: It was nothing.]

[Reporter: However, the Inevitable Malice—the true cause of the incident—was ultimately defeated by another hunter. Do you feel disappointed that you were not the one to bring it down?]

[Jung Haseong: I am extremely disappointed in that hunter.]

[Reporter: Disappointed?]

[Jung Haseong: I already suspected that he was powerful. But regardless of his reasons, pretending to be an F-Class while possessing S-Class strength goes far beyond what can be tolerated.]

[Reporter: (moves the microphone closer)]

[Jung Haseong: Personally, I hope that hunter clarifies his true rank as soon as possible.]

[Reporter: I see.]

[Jung Haseong: If he refuses to admit that he manipulated his registered Awakening rank, I am prepared to verify the truth personally.]