76 – 15 – Party Formation – 1

Even for Ji-hye, who had experienced the tutorial twice and was confident that she had become a true master of aspects related to summoner growth, systems, and quests, there were still things that were difficult to adapt to.

That was none other than the issue with the other races she had encountered upon entering the Leta Continent.

Certainly, there were many ordinary humans among the NPCs, and they lived reasonably well in this world alongside other races, but it was safe to say that almost none of them engaged in occupations that involved direct combat.

Of course, humans who appeared in Leta as summoners had to choose combat professions like mercenaries to earn points, but neither their perception nor treatment was very good, and whether they were summoners or NPCs, those at the top were often other races rather than humans.

‘If everyone were human, it would have been easier to deal with them and compete. Besides, being born strong is so unfair and cowardly. …Though it’s the same for humans, since there are naturally gifted people like Min-i.’

A Flame Human who had clearly distinguished himself by stopping the overflow of Turis despite not having been summoned to Leta for very long, and who had now even succeeded in hunting a divine beast of Legendary rank, causing rumors to spread not only in Turis but throughout the entire Gratia.

Following behind him as they moved toward the place where he was staying, Ji-hye grumbled to herself.

‘Of course, I’m thankful to my parents for giving birth to me so smart… but whenever I see other people’s innate talent, does the fact that what I have seems so lacking mean that even my heart is twisted?’

This was all because of Min-i, who was superior to her in every way.

Having burned with inferiority by comparing herself to her every single day, had she not naturally installed this kind of mindset?

Blaming her party leader, who was far too outstanding for a human, she took another look at the man walking ahead, the Flame Human Jun.

His build was, surprisingly, not that different from an Earthling’s.

Was it not around the same size as Gi-jun oppa?

Of course, Gi-jun oppa was the party’s tanker and was much larger than the average person.

‘But everything else about him is different—smoke rising from his body, a spirit-like creature sitting on his shoulder, great physical condition, and even his mana seems higher than mine, not to mention his charm.’

Yes, charm.

The fact that it was high was particularly important.

The moment she had entered the parlor earlier with Bella, the sub-master of the Ars Mercenary Guild, Ji-hye had thought she would faint upon seeing that masked man for the first time.

Since he wore a mask covering the bridge of his nose, the only things recognizable were his burning eyes and jawline, but that alone had given her a clear sense of just how handsome he was.

Dozens of days had already passed since she came to Leta, and during that time, no matter how similar they looked to humans, she had not felt that men of other races were particularly attractive, but…

It was not that Ji-hye’s aesthetic standards were unusually high; there simply had been no handsome men around!

‘If that mask is taken off, he must be ridiculously handsome… Gasp! No, I can’t do this, I have Uncle Su!’

As he was the object of her one-sided love for over twenty years, the feelings she harbored for Mok-su had now become something beyond mere affection, like a part of herself; still, even someone like her could not help her heart fluttering slightly upon seeing an excessively charming man.

And—hm, to the slight delight of her, who had been frustrated by Uncle Su lightly brushing off her rather blatant advances, thinking she had no charm as a woman, that man seemed to be interested in her!

Although he seemed to try not to show it, seeing him steal glances at her face or twitch as if wanting to say something made it 100% certain!

‘Phew, isn’t this going to get a bit tiring? I’m happy, but I have Uncle Su—Wait, I feel bad for this guy, but if I use this well, wouldn’t it stimulate Uncle Su a little? If he finds out that I’m popular with other men, no matter how dense that uncle is…’

No, but what if, instead of being jealous upon finding out, he got happy and told her to go for it?

If Uncle Su acted like that, Ji-hye was confident she would lose all hope in life and sink into despair.

Just as Ji-hye was repeatedly lost in her complicated thoughts, the steps of the man walking ahead, Jun, came to a sudden halt.

Naturally, Scintilla and Ji-hye, who were following behind, along with Unika, who had tagged along nonchalantly, also stopped walking.

“This is the place where I am staying. The lord lent it to me.”

“The lord did…?”

‘Huh, did his way of speaking change a bit?’ thought Ji-hye as she looked up at the massive mansion he was pointing to, admiring it.

While a certain party spent every day worrying about whether to book individual inn rooms or just get two, this man had performed spectacularly as soon as he entered the city and received a mansion from the lord, making her feel the gap anew and feel resentful.

“Unika, it’s just us right now, correct?”

“Yes, no one else is here. Now, please really explain it to me. Why on earth could you not handle it right then and there, and why is Scintilla-nim’s attitude like this?”

“If only you had told me in advance, that wouldn’t have happened, okay? I could have avoided being misunderstood, you know?”

Watching Unika confront him in a fairly intimate manner, and the man replying to such Unika with an incredibly informal, annoyed tone, Ji-hye felt a bit disappointed.

And for good reason, as that woman named Unika was incomparably more charming than herself, and at a glance, her relationship with the man seemed to run deep.

As she was quietly tearing to shreds the fantasy—the kind that only appeared in novels, where a successful man clung to her and passionately courted her—which she had briefly conjured up, Scintilla spoke from beside her.

“I told you earlier, but I can match whatever disguise you use, so rest assured, Jun. If you do not want it, I will not even mention the fact that you are a Flame Human.”

“Since I’m acting as a Flame Human anyway, that’s fine, but… Ah, forget it. I’m going to prove my past connection right now, so watch closely.”

‘Ah, the way he speaks in a sluggish, tired voice is also a bit sexy…’

While she was having such thoughts, lightning struck her mind.

It was because the man took off his mask without any hesitation and revealed his bare face.

His flushed, red skin calmed down, and his burning hair returned to black.

Above all, his eyes.

The reliable man’s eyes, which had always been deep and calm, soothing the hearts of those who met them.

They were looking right at her.

“Gi-jun oppa…?”

“That’s right, Ji-hye.”

The man—Gi-jun—nodded in confirmation of her words and smiled gently.

“I’m glad you’re safe. Have you been well? How are Min-i and the others?”

“No, I mean, h-h-h-how are y-y-you here, oppa…?”

Ji-hye stepped back a few paces in extreme bewilderment.

Of course, Gi-jun showing himself at this exact timing was also incredibly surprising.

To think that Gi-jun, who must have spent the same amount of time as them despite being separated for ten years, had been active enough to be said to have single-handedly stopped an overflow, and had even hunted a divine beast.

To think he even possessed the sense to disguise himself as another race instead of a human.

Yet, more than all of that, the change in his charm was far more shocking right now!

“I thought you would have realized by now, even if not immediately upon meeting, but you didn’t? My voice is exactly the same, you know.”

“Your voice changed too, you know! You’ve completely, absolutely! Changed in every way, you know?!”

At Ji-hye’s shout, which she could no longer hold back, Gi-jun scratched his head awkwardly, wondering if that was indeed the case.

Even that gesture was sweet.

‘This is crazy—! Ji-hye, pull yourself together, that person is Gi-jun oppa—!’

She had no idea where Gi-jun had been or what he had been doing for the last ten years, but there was no other way to describe the overall transformation that had occurred on his face than as a ‘wonder.’

Although every single component was indeed identical enough to recognize him as Gi-jun himself.

It was because the exquisite placement and subtle adjustments enhanced his charm, and all the miscellaneous elements that used to be shortcomings had disappeared, creating the maximum possible performance for the human named Gi-jun.

Among those changes, the biggest difference was that his complexion, which had not been very bright, had become as pure white, bright, and clean as if he had been bathed in milk.

He had always possessed a bright expression that gave a sense of stability to those who saw him, but now that his skin was fair, his impression was vividly revitalized, and his originally deep eyes felt as if they sparkled even more attractively.

‘Just how much did his charm grow? Honestly, even if he is put next to Min-i, he wouldn’t look inferior at all… Does this even make sense?’

He was someone she had followed like an elder brother because of his good personality and reliability, and she could swear she had never once thought of him as a man, but—

Perhaps because she had already perceived him as another person, as a man, when he appeared wearing the mask, her heart would not calm down even now that he had taken it off.

“Ab, abubu…”

—She seems to have lost her mind, Contractor.

“It must be because it’s been a while since we met. I was also extremely surprised.”

Gi-jun wore a bitter smile as he looked at Ji-hye, who could not calm down at all.

He wanted to ask about the current situations of Ye-min, Eun-shin, and Mok-su as well, but it seemed it would be impossible for the time being.

Still, it was enough to know that the members of the party he had belonged to had crossed over to Leta and were doing well.

For now, that was sufficient.

“Since I won’t even be able to join you guys for the time being anyway.”

“Huh?!”

Ji-hye’s senses snapped back at those words.

“Why, oppa? Come with me to Ars right now! Everyone is waiting for you there, especially Min-i! Gi-jun oppa, you will seriously be appalled if you know how hysterical Min-i was because you weren’t there for the last ten years!”

“I would love to do that too, but I already have connections I’ve made here. There are also things I need to resolve… so please understand. Let’s keep our reunion a secret for just a short while.”

“Well, since they would try to run over here immediately if I told them, it should obviously be kept a secret if you aren’t going, but…”

“I’m thankful that everyone missed me. I missed you all a lot too, truly.”

Gi-jun smiled bitterly as he stepped closer and patted Ji-hye on the shoulder.

Considering their relationship, this level of skinship was nothing to be surprised about, but Ji-hye froze in place, unable to move, as if she had received a colossal shock.

Gi-jun oppa had changed.

Both his body and mind had completely changed—

“Did you see, Scintilla?”

And Gi-jun showed off to Scintilla, the Flame Human woman who had been silently watching the close relationship between himself and Ji-hye from the side.

“This is the greatest proof that I’m not a Flame Human. I came from the same world as this human, and we even went through the tutorial together.”

“Uh-huh, right. You put quite a bit of effort into it. It will be great when you move around with a concealed identity later. You did very well, Jun.”

“…”

Naturally, even this did not work at all on Scintilla’s stubborn attitude.

The great writer Mark Twain, revered as the father of American literature, once said, ‘It is not what we don’t know that gets us into trouble, but what we think we know for sure.’

Since Scintilla had already set it as an absolute truth that Gi-jun was a Flame Human and reached a level of automatically correcting any contradictory information in her brain, she probably would not believe it even if Gi-jun opened his status window to prove his true identity.

Gi-jun, who had hoped even a little that her delusion would be corrected, let out a deep sigh, abandoned all hope, and turned his gaze to Unika, who was watching this entire scene.

“You see? My persuasion doesn’t work on this woman. No matter what I say, she tries to believe that I’m a Flame Human.”

“…Jun-nim, are you going to be okay?”

Unika, too, realized that Scintilla’s attitude was strange, wearing a chilled expression to the point of worrying about him.

It was at that moment that Gin and Laura, having detected signs of presence, rushed out from the backyard.

“Jun-nim!”

“You’ve come!”

They were sweating profusely with chunks of iron draped all over their bodies.

Even when Gi-jun trained under Biche, he used to put a load on his body like that when exercising alone.

As Gi-jun nodded satisfyingly at the sight, which even evoked a sense of nostalgia, the two of them, realizing there was a face they had never seen before, asked him cautiously.

“Jun-nim, who are those people, though?”

“They are all women…”

Chuckling at the sight of the two of them guarding against Scintilla and Ji-hye like wild animals, Gi-jun immediately introduced them.

It was truly ironic that one was someone who had come to help him believing he was a Flame Human, while the other was a companion who had gone through the tutorial with Gi-jun as a human.

“Then will both of them become party members?”

“Ah, that’s right. I’ve already decided to accept Scintilla as a party member, and as for Ji-hye… what do you want to do?”

“Y-Yes?”

Ji-hye, who had been receiving yet another massive shock at the appearance of a beautiful boy with beast ears on his head and a somewhat wild aura, and an atypical beautiful girl clad in both strange voluptuousness and a spooky atmosphere, reacted in surprise to Gi-jun’s question.

Gi-jun calmly explained the situation he was currently facing.

“We’re going to be doing some rather dangerous work from now on. So if you don’t want to, I don’t want to drag you in. As you said earlier, when the time comes to fight the vampires anyway, we’ll end up calling Min-i and the others, and I think it would be enough if you play an active role in Min-i’s party then—”

“No, Gi-jun oppa.”

Ji-hye, who had been wearing a confused expression until then, suddenly turned serious and retorted at his words.

“So you want me to leave you to do dangerous work alone while I back out? Do I look like such a cold-hearted person to you?”

“I said that because it will take a long time and might be difficult.”

“If it were anyone else, I wouldn’t care, but how can I back out when I know Gi-jun oppa is going to suffer? We are companions! Just because we were separated for ten years, are you trying to not treat me as a companion anymore?”

Indeed, Ji-hye had always been this kind of person.

Even if she acted coldly toward strangers, once someone entered her boundary, she was the type to give them her whole heart.

Confirming anew that her core remained the same even after ten years, Gi-jun grinned and shook his head.

“No, I just said that to be polite.”

“Huh?”

“Since I met the best magician I know, how could I just let you go? I’m going to hold onto you tightly and never let go, so be prepared.”

“?!”

Ji-hye gaped in utter shock.

What was this? This oppa was not someone who originally said things like this?!

“Oppa… what on earth happened to you? Why did you change so much!”

“I had a good teacher.”

—Here we go again.

Gi-jun wore a wistful expression as he recalled Biche.

While Lucy shook her head side to side, Ji-hye could only shudder as she fell into a deep misunderstanding, wondering under just what kind of Casanova he had trained to become like this.

“Ahem, Jun-nim?”

Unika, who had been wearing a somewhat displeased expression while watching the two of them exude a vibe of being ‘intimate companions,’ cleared her throat and intervened.

“It is a good thing that you know each other well, but since I heard you have been separated for ten years… wouldn’t it also be important to check your companion’s current precise level of skill?”

“Ah, now that you mention it, that’s true. I did bring her here to verify her skills.”

“Indeed.”

Ji-hye noticed that Unika harbored somewhat uncomfortable feelings toward her and smiled.

Although she was someone who often felt inferior by comparing herself to others, that was fundamentally an emotion that arose because she had a strong desire to have her abilities recognized.

Because she possessed such a desire, she had been able to steadily develop.

Particularly when it came to magic, which she dared to be confident in as her area of expertise, she…

“I will show you. At the very least, I’ve never heard anyone say I’m bad at magic.”

She could even dare to use the term “strongest of her tier.”

After witnessing her demonstration of magic, Unika had no choice but to acknowledge it.