I was Kicked Out of the Hunter’s Guild

Countless Abyss surged through the forest.

Enveloped in madness, they advanced without hesitation, crashing through the dense thickets.

With a force strong enough to destroy anything that stood in their path…

From above, it looked like black waves crashing through the trees, their grotesque forms triggering primal fear.

Driven by instinct, they ran with all their might toward a place where the scent of blood and the corpses of their own kind drifted through the air.

The place they arrived at—

A cave entrance, gaping open like a black mouth.

The smell of their own kind’s blood wafted from within.

Drawn by the scent, the Abyss poured into the cave without a moment’s hesitation, guided purely by instinct.

It didn’t matter to them what lay inside or what awaited them.

The only thing that mattered was the command imprinted in their very being.

Without resistance, they surrendered to that instinct, delving deeper and deeper into the cave—

A place where not even a single ray of light could penetrate—

Following the trail of blood left by their fallen kin.

And after some time…

In the darkness, their vision—capable of piercing even the deepest shadows—began to make out figures.

The forms of their fellow Abyss, lying motionless on the ground, bleeding out.

Corpses of their kind already littered the area, yet the Abyss continued to scatter throughout the cave.

They searched relentlessly for the ones responsible.

The ones who had led them here.

At that moment…

– Beep… beep… beep… beep…

A strange sound echoed throughout the cave, stimulating the Abyss’s heightened hearing.

The beeping noise began resonating from all directions.

At the same time, red lights started flashing in the Abyss’s field of vision, piercing the darkness.

– Beep… beep… beep beep beep beep…

And then—

– Booooooom!!!!! –

In the next instant—

A series of bombs detonated all at once with an earth-shattering roar.

The entire cave, where the Abyss had gathered, began to collapse.

Dozens of Abyss that had entered the cave were annihilated in an instant.

Meanwhile, aboard an airship watching the scene unfold from above, Iare calmly reported the progress.

“Status report for Operation 1. The cave has completely collapsed. No movement detected inside. Enemy presence eliminated. Requesting confirmation of mission completion.”

– “Thank you for your hard work. Please return to headquarters.” –

“Understood, Adjutant.”

With those words, Iare ended the communication.

From her vantage point aboard the airship, the collapsed cave was still clearly visible, dust rising steadily into the air.

There were six caves in total.

Compared to previous battles, this operation had taken a bit longer to prepare, and there were some risky moments.

Nevertheless—

This quest had also concluded perfectly, with zero damage to allied forces.

***

“Thank you for your effort. This is a perfect landslide victory.”

“Because it’s amazing! Whenever we fight, it’s a guaranteed win—100 out of 100! Even during the operation, there was almost no damage to our allies.”

“Oh oh, I believed it!”

As usual, the hunters generously showered me with praise.

I should be used to it by now, but it still feels a little awkward and overwhelming. Nevertheless, hearing their compliments made me feel quite good. With a slight blush, I responded,

“Hahaha. You’re exaggerating. Rather, I’m the one who’s grateful to all of you for trusting me and following my lead every time. No matter how good the strategy was, it would have been useless if you hadn’t executed my instructions perfectly.”

After the round of mutual praise for a job well done passed, Kwonsoon and Glass stood up from their seats and spoke to me.

“Since the mission is over, we’ll be heading out for a bit, Aide.”

“Ah, come to think of it, today’s the day you two were scheduled for your weapon checks, right? Be careful.”

“Haa… seriously, why does this always happen right at the end of a quest?”

The weapons used by hunters were so powerful that ordinary people couldn’t handle them. For that reason, they needed to be checked thoroughly and regularly.

Just as soldiers in a typical army groom and manage their own weapons, it was a fundamental rule for hunters to take care of their weapons after a battle.

However, no matter how well-maintained the weapons were, they were fundamentally different from standard rifles. As such, hunters were required to visit the maintenance shop at least once a month to check the condition of their equipment and have it repaired if necessary.

Coincidentally, today was the day Kwonsoon and Glass were scheduled for their weapon inspections.

As a result, the two had no choice but to leave for the repair shop without even conducting a follow-up on the completion of the mission.

Since maintenance would take several hours, the day was effectively over for them.

After the two left, I found myself alone with Iare, and for a brief moment, an awkward atmosphere settled between us.

Come to think of it… it feels like it’s been a while since it was just the two of us like this.

Up until now, Kwon Soon and Glass had almost always been by Iare’s side. Apart from the time we rode together in the car when I first arrived here, this was practically the first time we had been alone.

Realizing this, I began to feel a strange tension creeping in. To shake off the awkwardness, I quickly struck up a conversation.

“Come to think of it… it’s already been about four months since I came here.”

“Yes, that’s right. Looking at it that way, time really does fly. It feels like those four months passed in the blink of an eye.”

“Yeah… four months already. Time really has passed that quickly.”

At Iare’s words, memories of the battles against the Abyss over the past four months suddenly flashed through my mind.

Although the scale of these battles was much smaller compared to those I faced when I was part of the Hunter Guild, commanding the hunters of Dreamers here gave me a profound sense of satisfaction and accomplishment—something incomparable to what I had experienced before.

Back then… to be honest, I was driven mostly by a sense of duty.

But now, it’s different.

Now, I feel like I’m working for people I genuinely care about.

As that thought crossed my mind, I glanced at Iare, sitting next to me.

Her face wasn’t strikingly beautiful by conventional standards, but—

There was something about her… a resemblance to my sister.

Realizing that I was alone with someone like her made my heart start to pound—subtly, but unmistakably.

Just then, Iare spoke, as if something had suddenly come to mind.

“Come to think of it, summer is almost over. Since fall is right around the corner, I think I should go buy some clothes.”

“True. The days are getting chillier, and the nights aren’t hot anymore.”

Now that she mentioned it, I recalled noticing the lush trees gradually withering as I carried out recent quests.

Fall is definitely coming.

As I registered that fact, I began thinking about how future plans would need to be adjusted accordingly.

And then—

“Hey… that’s why… Mr. Jinhyun.”

“Yes?”

Iare’s voice had a subtle tension to it.

In response, I looked at her with slight doubt, and Iare continued, speaking cautiously.

“Um… if you don’t mind, would you like to go out with me now? Like I said, I need to buy some new clothes… and maybe we could have a meal together afterward—as a sort of after-party.”

“Um…”

At her words, I couldn’t help but feel a little nervous.

On the surface, it sounded like a casual invitation to go shopping together.

But…

No matter how dense I might be when it comes to these things, it felt a bit unreasonable to interpret the current situation so simply.

Could this… be what I think it is?

A date invitation…?

Back when I was in the Hunter Guild, I had gone shopping with S-class hunters before.

But those times had been nothing more than simple porter jobs—

Situations billions of light years away from anything remotely resembling a date.

This time, however, things were different.

The person inviting me wasn’t one of those women—

It was Iare, someone who was, in many ways, the savior of my life.

As I was feeling this strange thrill at Iare’s unexpected invitation, she spoke again, her voice carrying a hint of nervousness.

“I… can’t… can I?”

“Ah… no. I’d like that too. Let’s head out right now.”

I answered, my voice slightly tense.

At my response, Iare’s face instantly lit up with a calm, gentle smile.