***
"…"
"…"
"…"
"So…Ems…can you please explain to me, WHY IS THE SECOND RANKER OF KOREA IN YOUR HOUSE?!!?"
I bowed my head to the floor while covering my face with my hands.
"I DONT KNOW?! I panicked okay!"
My brother looked at me with disappointment in his eyes. Meanwhile, Jin-Hu stared in disbelief at the bloodied Ranker.
My brother started to speak.
"What happened…? How did you find her like this?"
"I-I don't know what happened to her. I was waking back with the food and I smelled blood so I followed the scent…She was unconscious on the ground of an alley."
Arthur calmly got on his knees and examined the Ranker.
In the mean time, Jin-Hu scolded me.
"Why didn't you just call an ambulance?"
"Because-"
"Actually, it's a good thing she didn't…"
Arthur spoke before I could.
We both looked at him and waited for him to finish.
"Anna Eun-Ha is the second ranker of Korea. Her getting hurt like this is abnormal. If you called an ambulance, they would have also notified the DMPC since you were on the scene with Anna Eun-Ha. They would have tested you to see if you weren't the one who got her in this state and if they did… You'll be in trouble right now. Hiders are not very well regarded as you may already know sis. "
"…"
We both looked at him in silence, until he started to speak again.
"Also, if the word had gotten out that she was injured like this outside of a dungeon, the media, the Hunters, the civilians and more would all ask questions. 'Who did this to her?', 'is a monster outside of a dungeon'?, 'Anna-Eun-Ha is not actually strong?'"
"…"
"So to sum it up, you did the right thing."
My brother put out my thoughts into words. This whole situation was so confusing…
I couldn't just let her out there to die. Even if I disliked Hunters…I still have to do the right thing.
I got on one knee next to my brother.
"Anyway…can't you heal her?"
Arthur looked at me for some seconds before retorting.
"No…I thought about it, but it's too dangerous. If I heal her, she'll immediately wake up and be overwhelmed by confusion. Besides, she'll probably wonder how I healed something that hurt her this badly."
I looked at the Ranker's face.
"Yeah…you're right. The three of us would be in trouble."
Arthur noticed my gloomy expression and spoke again.
"Even if I can't heal her, I can take a look at what got her in this state."
And that was when, for the first time in a very long time, I saw my brother use one of his abilities.
"{Analysis of Time}"
[The Rank◼️◼️Hunter {Arthur Crystal} uses the Rank — skill {Analysis of Time LV.—}]
My brother's light blue eyes shone in a even brighter light blue. He extended his hand towards the Ranker's face.
Hovering under his hand was a light blue incantation circle resembling that of a mage or a necromancer.
I had not seen him use his abilities in a while, but the circle was always weird to me, since my brother wasn't a mage or anything.
Anyway, being a mage wasn't like him, Arthur has always been more of the pacifist type.
"She was poisoned by {Water poison}."
Me and Jin-Hu looked at each other in confusion. Jin-Hu spoke first.
"Um…water poison? What do you mean by that?"
"It's a hidden poison. Made purely to not be detectable and to damage. This type of poison is illegal to sell and can only be used inside dungeons under specific instructions. {Water poison} is not it's real name, people call it that because it's transparent and does not taste like anything."
"…"
"Still, Eun-Ha should have been able to detect something like this. Shes the second ranker of Korea after all."
Arthur continued speaking while maintaining his skill.
"…Huh…something is weird. I should be able to see everything that happened to her… something is blocking my skill."
I made a shocked expression hearing those words.
Jin-Hu looked as shocked as me and said out loud what I had in mind.
"Something is blocking…YOU?"
"Yes, it's some sort of skill…I can see that it was in the {Water poison}… I think it's the main reason why Anna Eun-Ha couldn't sense anything. I think-"
"AH!"
The ranker let out a huge gasp. Like she hadn't breathed in a long time.
Me and Jin-Hu instinctively flinched and took a huge step back. Meanwhile Arthur was still next to the woman on the ground.
We all stayed in silence for 10 seconds before I decided to speak again.
"Uhhh, might be a dumb question, but is she alright…?"
I noticed blood coming out of her mouth.
With a tired expression, Arthur responded.
"Well, she's definitely not all right, but it's a good sign that she can still move a little. Also, her name is Anna Eun-Ha, you keep calling her 'Ranker'."
"Heh."
Silence took over the room. We truly didn't know what to do. Some might say that we're selfish or cowards for not getting help, but hey I don't want to be a ranker. Way too much trouble, way too much fame and way too many enemies.
Besides, the only one who can help right now is Arthur and he's the most at risk if he healed Anna Eun-Ha and got outed as a Hider.
People with healing abilities are rare nowadays and extremely sought after.
And at the end of the day…we all just want a normal life.
"…"
"…"
Silence took over the room. The three of us were focused on finding a solution.
My eyes lit up as I got an idea.
"Can't we just give her a A rank healing potion? That way we can heal her slowly enough to bring her in the same alley I found her—in a safe and hidden part of it of course—anddddd we'll be fine."
Jin-Hu looked at me with a snarky expression on his face.
"Those cost a lot of money, aren't you broke?"
"Shut your-"
*KNOCK*
*KNOCK*
*KNOCK*
Suddenly, someone was knocking at the door. I felt the atmosphere change to a more serious mood. The timing of me finding, bringing the ranker in the house and the knocking at the door was suspicious.
I looked at Jin-Hu and Arthur and nodded to signal that I would go see who it was.
I slowly walked to the door, carefully cause the floor was made ot of wood and squeaked loudly which was really annoying.
I held my breath and finally looked in the peep hole.
And then…
"Huh??? Suroko!?"
What was he doing here?
***
In a beautiful and organized office, a woman can be seen stacking documents in shelves, reading letters, fixing Dungeon reports and piling guild members files. She seemed incredibly focused on her work.
'Hm…the other members forgot to organized all of these. I should talk to them about it.'
All of a sudden someone opens the door to the office.
"Hello Sophia, my dear temporary guild leader~"
"Beatrice."
Sophia didn't particularly dislike Beatrice or appreciate her for that matter, but Beatrice gave her a bad feeling.
Sophia kept her head down, starring at the documents and worked while speaking.
"How did the meeting with Anna Eun-Ha go? Did she change her mind this time around?"
"It went bad…she rejected us!"
'As expected…'
"I had a feeling it did not go well when I saw the time. What took you so long?"
Beatrice's expression went from annoyance to sarcastic sadness quickly.
"I hung out outside and ate some food to cheer myself up after that horrible rejection!"
"Hm."
The room stayed silent for some time while Sophia worked. Beatrice then spoke.
"You know… you're really pretty. Your dark skin and pure white hair go well together, and that's not including your mint eyes~."
"I appreciate the fake compliments Beatrice, but you are aware that you don't have to do this to get the usual documents you always ask about right?"
Beatrice let out a disappointed sight and smiled.
"Uhh, you know me so well! So… you know our guilds could really use some healers. Where is the file about the registered healers in the city perimeter?"
"I'll get them for you."
"Thank you dear."
Sophia walked towards a bookshelf. The documents she looked for were on the very last shelf. She took a ladder and used it to get the documents.
She handed the pile of paper to Beatrice.
"…Huh, you're really making me work."
"Thank you!"
Sophia went back to her desk as the short blond haired—tied into a bun—lady in her office swept trough the files.
As she continued her work, Sophia started to notice a change of expression on Beatrice's face. It was as if the longer she looked at the files the more her expression twisted.
Beatrice gritted her teeth before noticing Sophia staring at their with a shocked expression.
"…Is everything alright?"
Beatrice quickly adjusted her expression to her usual smile.
"Ahh don't worry, it's just…"
"…"
"None of the healers in these files have what we need…Finding competent ones is becoming a real hassle~"
"I see. I supposed you're right. There's been a decline in the numbers of healers recently. I guess people have become more power hungry."
Beatrice nodded before a short silence loomed the room.
Looking as it she was gathering her thoughts, Beatrice spoke again.
"Say, do we have files about healers from other countries? As in international?"
Sophia was a little perplexed hearing that question.
"I thought you knew that we don't have power over international Hunter matter right? Anyway, if we wanted to hire Hunters from other countries, the paper work would we too much of an annoyance for me…"
Beatrice stayed standing and speaking with her back facing Sophia.
"Hmm, guess so."
Beatrice walked towards the door, but stopped in her tracks. Without looking back, she spoke.
"Well, thank you for letting me look through these again. Until next time dear temporary guild leader~"
"U-"
*SLAM*
Beatrice had quickly stepped out of the office while closing the door behind her—not letting Sophia utter a word.
"*Sigh* Until next time to you too…"
Sophia stayed staring at the door for some seconds.
'Beatrice is getting more and more worked up over the whole healer situation.
I mean shes right, we definitely are missing them in our guild, but to act to this extent…?'
She remember the twisted expression she made while looking through the files. It stuck with her.
…
…
…
"Hello Beatrice, good night isn't it?"
"A good night it is indeed."
Beatrice walked throughout the Holy guild's marbled white corridors. She waved and held small talk with people on her way.
Maintaining her smile and composure, she finally made it the exit doors.
She got into her car and started driving until she couldn't see the Holy guild's HQ.
She stopped at an empty parking spot, in the dark of the night, no one would come here.
She stayed there silently staring into nothing for a while.
"…"
"…"
"…fuck…"
"…fucking hell fucking piece of shit fucking useless bitch."
She bit her lips hard enough to tear them and blood started to pour on her thighs, righ onto her black dress.
Squeezing her fists, her palms were also starting to get bloodied by her sharp nails digging into them.
Her eyes started to look twisted.
"What's the point of being the leader of a guild as big as this one if you can't even find some fucking healers."
She smiled.
"Hehehehehe…it's fine it's fine it's fine it's alllll fine. I'll just look for some myself it's fine it's FINE."
"Hehehehe, healers are useless weak pigs after all, it should be easy to-"
*RING*
"…!"
All of a sudden, Beatrice's phone rang and snapped her back to reality.
"SOPHIA"
She breathed slowly to try and keep her calm before adopting her usual smiling face.
She looked at her face in the rearview mirrors before starting at it again on the black screen of her phone with the only visible texte being
'| SOPHIA' and the two button to accept or decline the call.
After considering to not respond, she accepted the call.
"Yes~ hello Sophia, need anything again?"
"| I just wanted to inform you that I managed to get an appointment with two Hunter associations in Germany and Japan. Maybe we could look for healers there? Our guild is pretty famous, we could attract some of them. |"
"…"
"| …Hello? Beatrice are you there? |"
With the phone up to her right ear, Beatrice stayed silent while starting blankly in front of her—still keeping a smile on her face.
"…Well…That's amazing news Sophia. Thank you so much for your efforts and your help!"
"| I- |"
"I'm really sorry dear, but I can't stay for long. I'm sooo busy these days~ goodnight."
"| CALL ENDED |"
"…"
"…"
"Ahhh, what a beautiful turn of events. I might have to pull some strings to look into the ALL of the healers of Germany and Japan altogether, but it doesn't really matter."
Beatrice was quickly back to her joyful self.
"I should grab a drink someplace…"
She took drove off the empty parking lot and went off her way.
***
When I saw Suroko through the peephole I froze and duck under the door.
Jin-Hu whispered.
"What? You mean the guy that was with us in the dungeon? The mute one?"
"Shhhh this is so embarrassing…"
Arthur looked at me calmly before whispering to me.
"Open the door, but not completely. Just enough to speak with him—"
"Okay…"
"—And Jin-Hu, can you move Anna Eun-Ha so shes out of sight?"
"Got it."
Our dumb, but only plan was in place. The goal: not look like weirdos we happen to have the second Ranker of Korea bloodied in their house— God that sounds bad.
I gently open the door.
"Umm heyyyyyyyy Suroko what are you doing here…? You know it's pretty late right?"
As I spoke, I thought to myself: 'Wow you sound suspicious as hell', but I couldn't help it. I'm a really bad actor.
"(I just wanted to thank you personally for guiding me back there)."
I saw a bunch of plastic bags in his hands so I assumed it was food.
"(May I come inside to drop the food? It's quite heavy for you to take alone. Besides, it's bad manners—)."
I panicked.
"NO NO really it's fine uhhhh I can take take it all. I'm pretty strong you know I'll be fine."
I noticed him looking inside the house, probably to see where he could drop off the food.
He stroked his long cream coloured hair tied in a ponytail before answering.
"(I'm sorry but I insist. I saw that your leg was injured back there, how could I let you carry all of this on you own…?)."
"I- uh…"
He looked down at my leg
"(Your leg is fine already?)."
"Yes! They gave me some pretty good potions back there it's TOTALLY fine. Goodbye—"
"(Why is there blood on the floor then?)."
Shit.
"Got a nosebleed earlier. Bye—"
"(You know, if you need my help healing the women that's laying on the floor of your house right now you can ask)."
"Yeah haha right—bye—"
"Huh?"
Suddenly, I stopped in my tracks. The conversation went so fast that I didn't really focus that well on what sign he was making. However, I was sure of what I had seen.
"Huhhh…"
Shocked, I looked back into the apartment and back at Suroko again probably three times.
"…"
"(You know your house's lights are on and the window's open right?)."
We are so done…
***