‘What the hell is this guy?’

Shin Su-yeon stared at the man in front of her with bewilderment.

Black hair, black eyes.

A contemptuous glare.

Undoubtedly a man. A man who dared to wear a sword at his waist.

“Ha.”

Shin Su-yeon let out a mocking laugh.

“I thought I’d go easy on you because you’re cute, but… you’re quite a firecracker, aren’t you?”

Despite being in the presence of an S-rank Hunter’s aura release, he stood firm without flinching, and he seemed completely unfazed by the name of the Shin family.

Of course, if she wanted to teach him a lesson, she could do so at any time. But the timing wasn’t right.

‘Tsk, I was going to use this magic on Se-hee if she rebelled…’

She turned her eyes away.

Se-hee, who cowered in fear when their eyes met, now met her gaze, as if to protect the man.

The girl who couldn’t even look her in the eye when she left home now stared her down, as if she had been taught something else in the meantime.

Shin Su-yeon’s eyebrows twitched in displeasure.

‘…This one definitely needs re-education.’

Later, she would bring her home and thoroughly instill in her the lessons she had neglected, engraving them deeply into her body.

‘First, let’s deal with this guy.’

She looked back at the man.

“From what you said earlier, it seems like you already know who I am… Kid, are you sure you won’t regret this? Going against me is the same as going against our family.”

Shin Su-yeon spoke in a cold yet casual tone, but Jin Yuha casually brushed his ear as if he’d just heard a load of nonsense.

“What’s so scary about going against that crazy family?”

By this point, Shin Su-yeon couldn’t help but think that things were going awry.

‘Is there really something going on?’

“What’s your name…?”

“Jin Yuha.”

“Hmm, Jin Yuha… Jin Yuha… I’ve never heard that name before…”

No matter how hard she racked her brains, she couldn’t find any information about someone named Jin Yuha. She decided to investigate this name when she got back and then punish him thoroughly. She had no intention of letting this man, who had dared to be so insolent to her, off the hook.

“You’re lucky. You’re the first person to talk back to me like this and still walk away in one piece.”

There were places where she could dig up information about him without even trying.

‘He seems close to Shin Se-hee.’

She turned her head back to Shin Se-hee.

“Se-hee. Enough playing around. Let’s go home…”

And as she reached out to her—

Screech!!!

A crisp sound of flesh hitting flesh rang out.

A flash of light, and her head jerked to the side. A stinging sensation on her cheek.

‘…Huh?’

Shin Su-yeon couldn’t believe what had just happened to her.

‘Did I just… get slapped?’

She touched her cheek, feeling the heated temperature confirming that this situation was, indeed, real.

“And what are you doing, sneaking your hand out again? Didn’t I warn you? I told you not to touch Se-hee.”

Jin Yuha scolded her with an annoyed expression.

The prestigious hunter family, the Shin family.

Magic Sword. Shin Su-yeon.

The S-rank Hunter, renowned for crushing her enemies with overwhelming magic, was truly experiencing this kind of treatment for the first time. She was so flustered that her eyes shook, but her trait, [Acting], allowed her to maintain a calm expression.

“Are you for real…?”

She asked, but the answer to her question was—

Screech!!!

“Ahh!”

Again, a sudden impact. She took a step back, clutching her other cheek as a strange pain surged.

When she turned her head, Jin Yuha stood there with his palm up, his face cold.

“You crazy b*tch!”

It was no longer a matter of maintaining her expression. Shin Su-yeon’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Hey, did you think I’d be scared if you showed off the mana you’ve painstakingly gathered, and talked back to me about the Shin family? You half-assed S-rank hunter.”

For a moment, a killing intent flashed in her eyes.

‘How does he know about that…! No, wait. He doesn’t know the real secret yet!’

Of course, even so, nothing changed the fact that she had to kill this guy right here, right now. She reached for the sword at her waist.

However, the next moment.

Her face went blank.

Bang!

With the sound of air bursting, Jin Yuha disappeared from his spot, and in an instant, his fist was in front of her face.

Slam—!!!

“Kheug!”

Her head, struck by the fist, snapped back, and her upper body flew into the air.

Boom—!!!

Shin Su-yeon, despite her title as an S-rank Hunter, rolled on the floor, having been punched by Jin Yuha.

“If you were that strong, you’d be the main story villain, not just a personal story one, you crazy b*tch.”

“Ugh!”

“Personal story villain means that Se-hee alone is enough to take you down.”

As she lifted her head, she saw a shoe right in front of her face.

Slam—!

A heavy impact mercilessly struck her head.

“Kheug!!!”

A guttural scream escaped her.

Slam!

Slam!

Slam!

Jin Yuha kicked and stomped on Shin Su-yeon, infusing his foot with magic, as if she was a soccer ball.

The initial composure was long gone, leaving only malice behind.

‘How can I, even without my magic…! Be beaten by a man?!’

She had noticed that he had some spirit when he withstood her magic release, but the battlefield she had been through was not so easy that she would be unilaterally beaten by a mere man.

“You!”

She tried to get up, her eyes sparking with anger.

Slam—!!!

But Jin Yuha, now right in front of her, kicked her chin with his foot.

Boom—!

Her body flew again, smashing a display case.

Shin Su-yeon, her vision blurred, glared up at him with venomous eyes.

“I… will kill you. Definitely, in the name of our family…”

Jin Yuha let out a snort of laughter.

“Go ahead.”

“What?”

“But can you do it without Se-hee?”

Shin Su-yeon looked up at him with a dazed expression.

No, it couldn’t be…

“All this time, you’ve been sucking up your cousin, your blood relative, your sister’s mana, and spending it lavishly, pretending to be an S-rank. Do you think you’re a real S-rank just because you’ve been acting like one?”

“…”

Slam!

Another kick landed.

“Without your mana, you’re getting beaten by a student like me. Are you still an S-rank?”

Shin Su-yeon was overwhelmed with confusion.

‘How does this guy know our family’s secret…!’

“Since Se-hee went to the Academy, you must have been worried sick. Why don’t you have your precious Shin Se-hee’s mana to suck up anymore?  As soon as you heard that Se-hee had gone out, you rushed out like a madwoman, didn’t you, you crazy b*tch?!”

Slam!

.

.

.

The prestigious hunter family, the Shin family.

I had good reason to call these guys nuts.

They weren’t Demons, but in a way, they were even worse than them.

In this Gate era, where it’s still unknown who will awaken, when they will awaken, how excellent their qualities will be when they bloom, and how the process of awakening will unfold, it’s clearly strange that there is a renowned noble family that regularly produces excellent hunters.

They packaged it as a chosen family, but in reality…

‘It’s a method of concentrating mana into one awakened person in the family.’

That’s why the Hunter Noble Family, the Shin family, indiscriminately adopts awakened orphans. The world praised this as noblesse oblige of a noble family, but the real reason was mana supply.

I looked down at Shin Su-yeon with cold eyes.

A few teeth were missing, and her beaten face was bruised and swollen.

I walked towards her with heavy steps.

She, forgetting her original concept, pathetically backed away, cursing at me.

“You, you don’t know who I am?!”

“Self-proclaimed S-rank Hunter, Shin Su-yeon.”

“Yeah! F*ck! I’m Shin Su-yeon! Shin Su-yeon of the Shin family!!!”

“So what?”

“My family won’t let you get away with this!!!”

Hearing those words, I snorted with laughter.

“Hmm, really?”

“Yeah!! Our family can crush you like an ant…”

I shook my head, cutting her off.

“Well, that’s all fine and dandy.”

And I leaned towards her.

“Did you forget something?”

I whispered in her ear in a low voice.

“The girl you’ve been gaslighting since she was young. Now that she knows, do you think she’ll just sit still?”

At that moment, Shin Su-yeon’s eyes shifted to the back.

There, her sister stood, shaking her head in disbelief at what she had just heard.

‘No, no! How did I… until now…!’

“And I’m going to make it a little easier.”

Booook—!

I reached out and tore her clothes.

In an instant, Shin Su-yeon’s top was ripped off, leaving her in her underwear.

And in the middle of her chest was a blood-red jewel.

“Tsk. You must have really not wanted to let it go. You even embedded the magic absorption artifact into your body.”

Shin Su-yeon’s eyes widened.

“Wait, just a moment!”

But my hand was faster than her attempt to stop me.

The red jewel was in my fingertips.

Crack—!

The red jewel began to crack slowly.

She looked down at her chest, her face bewildered.

“No, no, no, no, noooooo!!!”

Shin Su-yeon’s desperate scream filled the boutique.