RAGAT 07

Episode 07

The article portrayed me as if I had thrown myself into danger in a grand act of self-sacrifice.

I suppose that’s how it must have looked.

I’d been torn up all over, grappling with goblins in a desperate mess.

The reporter described—painstakingly, mercilessly—the lone struggle of an E-rank hunter trapped in an overwhelming situation.

She really does have a way with words.

It was something she could be proud of.

Still, it left a bad taste in my mouth.

I was the one who had walked away with an absurd amount of profit yesterday.

Yet in the article, I came off as a paragon of justice, an Awakened driven by righteous duty.

Sure, I’d struggled against the goblins, so there were no flashy epithets like “Hunter on a White Horse” or “Rising Supernova.” But still.

“Do you know that reporter?”

At my brother’s question, I shook my head.

“First time I saw her was on the bridge yesterday.”

“Really? She focused on you out of all those hunters, and even during the cleanup yesterday… If you didn’t know her, then never mind.”

“…Did something happen while I was passed out?”

“Not exactly. But even when you were getting loaded into the ambulance, she kept staring at you and me like she’d seen a ghost. I thought maybe you knew each other.”

That made sense.

Same last name. A short exchange, but the easy familiarity of brothers. I didn’t need to see it to imagine what kind of story she’d spun in her head.

So this was flattery, too.

A blatant attempt to build ties with someone close to Seo Bo-seok.

It was so obvious it made your skin crawl.

Was it really okay for a reporter to be this transparent?

…Then again, maybe that’s why it’s a win-win.

I tossed my phone aside.

I felt nauseous.

The letters swam like gnats before my eyes.

“What, you want to go back to the hospital?”

“No.”

I forced myself to look calm.

“Like you said—probably aftereffects from a second awakening.”

That wasn’t entirely wrong.

“What kind of awakening side effect gives you anemia? Still, I guess that’s on the cheaper end?”

“There are hunters who cough up blood every time they use their abilities.”

“Compared to that… still, if anything feels off, go straight to the hospital.”

“Yeah, yeah. I know. You know I don’t like hospitals.”

“Ah.”

He winced.

“…Right. Sorry about the ER.”

“What do you have to be sorry for? I’m the one who said something weird.”

Without realizing it, I’d started whining.

It stings because it actually hurts.

As I’d said before, thanks to my brother’s full support, I’d gotten into Korea University’s medical school. Coming from an orphanage, it felt like a dragon rising from a muddy stream.

Or so I’d thought.

Who could have imagined that healer-type Awakened would emerge just one year before the national licensing exam?

Guess that’s what happens when your luck is minus forty-four.

At first, the medical community resisted fiercely.

But the tide of the times is unstoppable.

Fast, simple, and with almost no aftereffects—the healers’ treatments eventually pushed professors out of their own domain. Medical students never stood a chance.

I was living proof. The university my brother had practically worked himself to the bone to send me to—by our fifth year, my classmates and I had lost our place entirely.

“…Uh, so.”

My brother scratched his eyebrow with his thumb, awkward.

“Still, anemia can’t be fixed by healing abilities. Won’t you need to stop by the hospital for transfusions sometimes?”

“If I’m going to live as an Awakened, yeah. I donated blood a lot during college, so I still have the donation cards—”

……

Blood donation cards? Transfusions?

“Won-seok, you okay?”

“Hyung.”

“Y-Yeah?”

“…To receive a hunter’s blood, you have to be a hunter yourself, right?”

“That’s right.”

“Ha.”

All the strength drained out of me.

The condition for forming a Lifelong Blessing is sharing blood.

Donation and transfusion.

The only blood exchange sanctioned by modern society.

To think the mandatory blood donations I did in college would become a prerequisite for a Lifelong Blessing…

To complete the condition—

I need a transfusion.

Preferably, a hunter’s blood.

—Sharing blood.

Easy words.

Unless you’re a beast that survives by devouring human flesh, how often do people actually share blood with one another in their lives? Once or twice, if that.

The Lifelong Blessing is an ability that performs best when bound to a hunter, not a monster.

In theory, I could level up using only the experience offered by my “Euls.”

But at the same time, it felt as if the Lifelong Blessing refused to let its owner sit idly by.

When Han Bi-yeol disappeared from nearby, the red thread connecting us vanished too.

Looks like there’s a range limit.

Right in front of me was proof supporting that impromptu hypothesis.

The red thread linking my brother and me.

In the end, to gain experience, I’d have to either enter the front lines myself or stay close by. No automatic grinding from the comfort of my room.

Having lots of Euls around isn’t necessarily a good thing.

The more red threads spun from my blood, the more severe my blood deficiency would become. If I wasn’t careful, I could pass out again like yesterday.

Anemia is now a chronic condition for me in this life.

There was only one solution.

I needed to level up—fast.

Paradoxically, to level quickly and draw closer to my long-held goal of revenge,

I had to find my Euls.

Stay near them. Siphon off a portion of their experience.

Only then would my growth align with my purpose.

When my face grew serious, my brother pressed me.

“What is it? Tell me too.”

Shock could wait.

“I think I need to go to the Hunter Association today.”

“All of a sudden?”

“Yeah. To get my hunter license.”

“Hmm. Legally, you’re supposed to report within twenty-four hours of awakening.”

One of his eyebrows twitched.

“There’s a reason it has to be today, right?”

“Just following the law.”

There was another reason.

In my previous life, today was the day you were taken out.

The forces targeting my brother must have had their plans disrupted by yesterday’s incident on the bridge.

Even so, knowing what I knew, I couldn’t just leave him alone.

“Alright, then.”

He accepted my decision without resistance.

“I just got word that the B-rank Abyss Gate scheduled for tonight was canceled. My schedule’s open—perfect timing.”

“Going right away?”

“Let’s eat first. We drank soju yesterday—we need hangover soup. Let’s go to the bean sprout soup place downstairs with Na-eun.”

“……”

The trajectory of my life had shifted.

“Okay.”

I believed this was the right direction.

* * *

The bean sprout soup restaurant.

The exterior was shabby, which only meant it had been around forever.

My brother and I leaned in close, heads nearly touching, devouring bowls of kimchi bean sprout soup.

Being near him increases the number of red threads—just sitting here makes me dizzy.

Hoo.

Eating helped. I felt more alive.

Unlike earlier, when even lifting a spoon felt like a struggle, my hands moved busily now.

“Still tastes great.”

“And it’s still three thousand won. I tell the owner to raise the price, but she just yells that all the regulars would leave.”

At one side of the table, Na-eun poked at her kids’ pork cutlet set, diligently picking out the broccoli.

“Na-eun, don’t be picky.”

My brother scolded her.

She puffed out her lips.

“Broccoli tastes bad!”

“The worse it tastes, the better it is for you.”

“If it tastes bad, it makes me feel bad!”

“……”

My brother fell silent.

I couldn’t help but laugh.

“That’s another win against Hunter Seo.”

“Hey, you—… No, you tell me. I might be an uncle she sees once a year, but she listens to you like gospel.”

“There’s some bite in that tone, hyung.”

I smirked and picked up a piece of broccoli with my chopsticks.

“If you’re not going to eat it, your uncle will.”

“……Huh?”

“Mm. It’s fine.”

“……Mm.”

Na-eun looked between me and her plate. After a moment of hesitation, she shut her eyes tight and stabbed the broccoli with her fork.

“Hup!”

Chew, chew.

She pinched her nose, cheeks puffed out. My brother let out a hollow laugh.

“This is humiliating. Did med school teach childcare too?”

“This isn’t childcare.”

“Then what?”

“Sense. Just sense.”

“Unbelievable.”

A trivial conversation.

My chest felt warm. I decided it was from the soup. It was still too early to relax.

I set my spoon down. My reflection wavered in the broth.

I still haven’t identified everyone behind it.

In my previous life, Han Bi-yeol had been directly involved in my brother’s death.

That made the involvement of the R&Y Guild highly suspect.

I watched my brother, the hunter wiping sweat with a handkerchief.

At a glance, he looked easygoing.

But after awakening the blessing, I can kind of tell.

Seo Bo-seok stood on a completely different level from every hunter I’d ever met, in both my past and present lives.

They say you only see as much as you know.

So how monstrous must my brother appear in the eyes of someone like Han Bi-yeol, who was already making a name for himself?

Not for nothing—just yesterday, he’d been trembling like he’d run into a tiger in the dead of night.

He doesn’t look bold enough to kill my brother on his own.

At this point, it was safe to assume the organization backing Han Bi-yeol was involved.

My mouth felt dry as I suddenly asked,

“What do you think of the R&Y Guild?”

“What do I think? They’re the number one guild in Korea.”

Cool and refreshing as the soup.

“…That’s it?”

“Their number of hunters is slightly below average. But their quality is high. They have the densest concentration of top-tier hunters in the country.”

“Political ties?”

“From what I know, moderate. They don’t really need to lobby. Call it… amicable?”

“Hmm.”

The entire political sphere being entangled with R&Y?

Highly unlikely.

There were too many factions involved.

About five years later, they’d even form alliances with other guilds and engage in outright physical conflicts.

For now, let’s focus on R&Y.

I organized my thoughts. My brother stared at me.

“You want to join R&Y?”

“Is that a place you can just walk into if you want?”

“You never know. With a second awakening, they might recruit you directly.”

I smiled and shook my head.

“I’m not interested in any guild that doesn’t have Seo Bo-seok.”

“Pfft!”

“Ew, Dad! Gross! I even ate all my broccoli!”

Cough, cough.

“No, I—ha…”

This hunter, wiping his mouth with a handkerchief and talking about reducing waste, was currently unaffiliated.

Korea’s strongest hunter was a freelancer.

People think he’ll bulk up his value after getting Korea’s first S-rank, then head to the States.

They’re wrong.

He’d explained it to me once.

“Once you join a guild, most of your contracts are upper-tier gates. Mana stones vary wildly between tiers, you know. But the gates that trap ordinary civilians the most are the lower-tier ones.”

The model answer of a hunter.

And Seo Bo-seok had proven through his actions that it wasn’t hypocrisy.