Chapter 8

“Go investigate the Alkali Waterfall and Pado.”

Two days later.

The Commander of the West Sea Legion, Eun Jisung, issued a solemn order. Morae immediately protested to her father.

“No!”

“I hate it too.”

“No!”

Morae firmly grabbed her father and shook him. However, Eun Jisung effortlessly slipped out of his daughter’s grasp.

Climbing up Morae’s arm, he stepped on her cheek, leaped off, and plopped his tiny body right on top of her head.

“You two going together is best.”

“I don’t want to go with Pado.”

“Why?”

“…”

Instead of answering, Morae reached her hand up over her head and snatched the tiny commander.

A hamster as white as snow was caught on the top of her head, unable to move forward or back, grabbed in his daughter’s hand.

A snow-white hamster. By all appearances, a tiny rodent.

That very creature was the renowned current commander of the West Sea Legion, Eun Jisung.

Naturally, he was originally human. He was a proper man in his fifties who had played a part in giving birth to Eun Morae, distinguished by his fine, youthful looks even in his older years.

Early last year, he had regrettably become a hamster during an experiment.

While a person turning into a hamster was troublesome, it wasn’t an impossible occurrence. Such was the era. Perfectly normal people grew to twice their size, while middle-aged men turned into hamsters.

Though he should have been desperately researching a way to revert, depending on the person, a hamster’s body wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Perhaps not particularly disliking his hamster form, Eun Jisung was thoroughly enjoying life as a rodent.

“There’s no one better suited for investigating the waterfall and river than Pado. With Pado around, he can even alter the water paths.”

A mouth smaller than a hamster’s claw twitched.

“It doesn’t have to be me, you know.”

“There’s no one better suited to checking the situation in the contaminated zone while surveying water quality than you. My daughter has a way of satisfying her dad’s curiosities without even needing to be told.”

“It’s not even an important study. You’re just doing it because you can, right?”

“There’s no such thing as an unimportant study. There are only studies that aren’t urgent. It’ll be fun to find out why the water is so heavily alkaline and what lives in there.”

Eun Jisung twitched his whiskers in delight. Morae narrowed her eyes and glared at her research-obsessed father.

In short, it wasn’t a crucial or urgent matter, but he was simply itching to know. Seeing as it was a relatively recent geological formation, he looked desperate to find out as soon as possible.

Her father’s passionate thirst for knowledge and academic zeal served as a reliable asset to the legion, but on a day like this, it was a nuisance. Morae audaciously stroked her father’s head.

“I’ll do it next time.”

“No. I know neither of you has anything going on. Off you go.”

“But.”

“Don’t be stubborn. It’s not like working with Pado is going to put you in an impossible position.”

Eun Jisung didn’t make an effort to return to his original form for various reasons.

One was that even in his small body, there was no problem conducting research, and another was that he begrudged spending time on mere body-reversion research.

Another reason was somewhat more personal. It was because his daughter, in the prime of her youth, behaved submissively toward her father.

After all, hamsters were cute, and it was far too awkward to pick a serious fight with one.

Once again, he made full use of that advantage. His daughter was good-natured by nature, but she tended to listen even better to her hamster father.

“…”

However, the reason Eun Morae had fallen silent this time was far removed from thoughts like “my hamster father is cute” or “I can’t turn down a weak hamster’s request.”
There was something that simply couldn’t be ignored between Morae and Pado.

Something she could never bring herself to tell her father.

“I roughly know what happened. I hear you two made quite a fuss arguing in the corridor?”

Her heart skipped a beat for a moment, but thankfully her father only knew the surface of the problem. Because none of the people who had seen Pado hauling Morae away on his back would dare tell Eun Jisung, “Yu Pado carried your daughter off like a bride.”

Granted, they probably didn’t know what actually happened between the two of them, but even if they did, you couldn’t just say things like that to a father. The residents of the floating city might lack ethics, but they had basic common sense.

“It’s not a problem you can solve by running away. Go on a trip together to clear the air.”

“It’s awkward though…”

Morae shrank her shoulders and grumbled, wanting nothing to do with running into Pado.
Just as her father had said, she had been avoiding Pado. And if Morae’s guess was correct, Pado was doing the exact same thing.

After spending an intense night together, the two of them had become painfully awkward.
While there might be people in some corner of the world who could act completely nonchalant after spending a single night together, neither Morae nor Pado belonged to that category.

Since stepping out of the room, they hadn’t exchanged a single word.

Far from carving out time for themselves, they were too busy making sure their shadows didn’t overlap even if they happened to cross paths by chance.

The affectionate, soft-hearted Pado from the morning after sex had vanished without a trace. Whether he had snapped back to his senses after the wave of lust faded or if there was another reason, he had reverted to his usual unyielding and frosty self.

Yet because he didn’t even speak to her, the situation was actually worse than before.

“How awkward could it possibly be? It’s not like Pado confessed his love to you or anything.”

If he had, things would have been infinitely easier, but in reality, something far worse had happened.

Since she couldn’t confess the truth to her father, Morae could only chew on her grievance with a look of having swallowed sand.

“I’m sure Pado hates it, too.”

“Even if you hate it, work is work. It’s my order, so you can’t refuse. Same goes for you. If you want your allowance, get out there right this instant.”

Unaware of his daughter’s mood, her father paced back and forth on top of her head, nonchalantly scratching his front paws.

“Who knows, Pado might pack up and leave for somewhere else soon. You should make the most of him while you can.”

Her father’s words tossed firewood straight into Morae’s simmering irritation.

Reason number two why she didn’t want to see Pado.

The core of the problem remained completely unresolved.

Pado and Morae had slept together. They had thoroughly, exhaustively gone at it.

A good part of that came down to a clash of pride, but rumors that Pado might leave for the Downtown Workshop had played a massive role.

Because of that, Morae had wanted to prove she was better than the women at the Downtown Workshop, which somehow led to them winding up in bed together.

Now that it was actually done, regret weighed heavily on her chest, but even if she could turn back the clock to that day, she would have walked the exact same path.

There simply hadn’t been any other choice. If she hadn’t, she would have sat there with her eyes wide open and let Pado get snatched away.

Morae desperately did not want to let Pado go.

Yu Pado was worth every bit of that desperation.

Thirty-seven years ago, Gates appeared in the world.

The arrival of sub-spaces that overturned the laws of nature plunged the world into chaos.

The Gates turned surrounding areas into death zones, spewed out monsters, and eroded human territory.

Yet people weren’t meant to simply die off; alongside the Gates, individuals who awakened special abilities began to appearing all across the globe.

Those capable of wielding what was once called supernatural power soon came to be known as Hunters.

Naturally, an era of turmoil always breeds ambitious people.

The reach of the government didn’t extend to contaminated lands and remote frontiers. Prominent ability users began running amok as they pleased, taking advantage of the chaotic times.

Just as pretenders to the crown multiply in times of disorder, unlicensed ability users calling themselves underground hunters preached a brand-new order. The place overflowed with criminals, people persecuted by the government, and fugitives running for their lives.

Mafias, gangs, cartels, and rebels seized practical military might through bloody, violent conflicts, carving out independent factions all over the world.

It was truly an age of rival warlords, a chaotic era of impure syndicates.

The West Sea Legion was one such ruthless underground organization.

Founded twenty-seven years ago by five men and women who shared a common vision, it was a time-honored syndicate that served as a haven for citizens who had turned their backs on the government, and the de facto ruler of the floating city White City.

Though operating in a perilous environment where government forces and hostile factions launched constant raids, it was a prestigious organization that had stably governed White City for decades.

Within that very West Sea Legion, there had been five S-rank Hunters over the course of twenty-seven years.

There had never been a time when all five existed simultaneously. At first, there was only one, and at its peak, there were three.

Over the span of twenty-seven years, one S-rank Hunter had died, two had been captured, and one had vanished into seclusion. The only S-rank remaining in the legion now was Morae’s mother, Han Nokyeong.

That single person was the rampart of the floating city White City and the West Sea Legion. She alone could block a rain of artillery and a thousand enemies. Half the reason the government still hadn’t managed to conquer White City—situated so close to Seoul—was Han Nokyeong.

That was how formidable S-rank Hunters were individually.

A single person could found an organization, and two gathering together formed a force that couldn’t be ignored. People even said that if five gathered, they could build an entire city.

So much so that even at the time of its founding, the organization was named the West Sea Legion simply because Han Nokyeong alone was as strong as an entire legion.

Yu Pado possessed the qualifications of an S-rank.

Though currently classified as an A-rank, Morae had instantly recognized his true worth.
He was still in his growth phase. If he polished his skills, he would become a powerhouse second to none, even rivaling her mother.

That was why Pado was special. Even at a glance, he was an invaluable gemstone. For the future of the legion, she absolutely had to keep him in her grasp.

Eun Morae, raised amidst outlaws and fugitives with doting affection and harboring a fierce attachment to the organization and the city, desperately wanted Pado as an ally.
He was essential, and she wanted him no matter what. On the day she confirmed the true value of the Pado she had personally scouted, Morae had jumped up and down with joy on her bed.

Pride had stopped her from clinging to the hem of his trousers and begging, but if Pado stayed in the legion, she didn’t mind sleeping with him a few times.

The real problem wasn’t something petty like “things are awkward with Pado.” Nor was it “I can’t offer my body for a goal.”

The clear, decisive problem was: “Does Pado actually stay by Morae’s side after sleeping with her?”

After sex, Pado had worn a refreshed face, but not a single word had he uttered about their future plans.