Even Today, the Ranker Dreams of Retirement

At that moment, outside the boss room. Kang Taeseo was left alone beyond the door.

“……”

Taeseo folded his arms, staring at the tightly sealed boss room door.

He recalled the betrayal just committed by Hwang Maru and the other guild members.

‘Flick!’

‘Paralysis Poison!’

‘Back Attack!’

‘This is the end for you, Kang Taeseo!’

“…Their actions didn’t deviate even an inch from my expectations.”

He leaned against the door.

The firmly sealed entrance to the boss room.

Unfortunately for Hwang Maru, this door wouldn’t open until the conquest was complete.

Taeseo had known all along.

What Hwang Maru’s intentions were when he joined Caligo.

‘That Kang Taeseo bastard, he’s got no manners, right?’

‘Why should I listen to that brat?’

He was aware of all the vile gossip and political maneuvering that occasionally reached his ears.

Above all, he knew exactly why they had joined today’s Kill Screen operation, and what they were planning.

‘We’ll trap Kang Taeseo in the boss room and lock the door!’

“And they call that a plan.”

Should he be impressed by their audacity, or mock their stupidity?

But Taeseo himself felt little emotion about it.

‘I’m used to it.’

In the short span of five years, many blades had been pointed at Taeseo, not just Hwang Maru’s.

He was accustomed to betrayal.

To being the target of jealousy, to being kept in check. Even to those trying to use him.

That’s why Taeseo was always wary of everyone. He had created a guild, but he never truly trusted any of the guild members.

Taeseo glanced back at the door. In fact, if Hwang Maru and the guild members hadn’t executed their plan, they wouldn’t have ended up trapped like this.

After all, Taeseo had only used two skills.

Instantly swap positions with an enemy.

Reflect received attacks back to the enemy.

They had simply been bounced into the boss room with the same force they used to push Taeseo, and suffered the same attacks they had launched at him.

‘So it’s their own doing.’

If they were annihilated facing the boss inside, it would be their own karma.

“It wouldn’t be bad to clean out the troublesome factions all at once, I suppose.”

As he guarded the quiet boss room entrance, Taeseo added coldly.

◆◇◆◇◆

Inside the boss room.

Habin savagely questioned the sprawled-out Hwang Maru and guild members.

“…Say it again, who’s trying to get rid of whom?”

Hearing an unexpected voice, Hwang Maru slowly raised his head.

The source of the voice was at the center of the boss room.

More precisely, a long-haired woman sitting nonchalantly in the Demon King’s chair, where the boss should have been.

‘That face! I’ve seen it somewhere before!’

Hwang Maru searched his hazy memories. He was certain he’d seen that irritating face somewhere.

“Who was it……. Ah!”

Hwang Maru recalled her identity.

Hyun Habin.

The rookie hunter Kang Taeseo had suddenly brought along. Taeseo’s high school classmate and friend.

Despite being an outsider, she had joined the Kill Screen operation just because she was the ‘guild master’s friend’, which had greatly displeased him. That’s why he remembered her.

‘But she was definitely assigned to the standby team! And even then, she had an accident and fell off the cliff……’

A straggler occurrence.

It had happened during the conquest, but Hwang Maru remembered it clearly because he had viewed it with disdain.

‘Someone from the standby team fell off the cliff……’

‘The person who fell was Hyun Habin, they say?’

In that situation, Hwang Maru had openly sneered.

‘Bringing someone to a dungeon just because they’re his friend. Is this some kind of childish game? Tsk tsk.’

He had thought.

“Hwang Maru-nim, that person is definitely……!”

Just then, there were other guild members who recognized Hyun Habin. They also fell into confusion and started murmuring.

“Why is the person who fell from the cliff here?”

“Kang Taeseo’s acquaintance……”

“Wasn’t she supposed to be a rookie?”

“This is the boss room!”

“What in the……”

Hwang Maru bit his lip. It wouldn’t do to have everyone fall into confusion. As the situation worsened, he, as the leader, needed to keep everyone centered.

To do that, he needed to grasp the situation before anyone else.

‘Let’s organize the facts.’

They had tried to push Kang Taeseo into the boss room, but instead, they were the ones who had been flung in.

Moreover, waiting for them here wasn’t the boss who should have appeared, but this person who was supposedly Kang Taeseo’s friend.

“Hah! So that’s how it is.”

Hwang Maru smiled confidently, as if he had figured it all out. He shouted at Hyun Habin.

“As I thought, you were in cahoots with Kang Taeseo from the start! You knew we were coming like this!”

“What are you suddenly going on about?”

Habin frowned, but Hwang Maru continued on triumphantly, undeterred.

“That Kang Taeseo bastard, I should have been suspicious when he suddenly brought a friend, given he never had any close acquaintances before!”

He continued with a look of certainty.

“I don’t know what trick you pulled, but you, you pretended to fall off the cliff and were waiting here for us on purpose!”

“Why would I do that?”

“Because! You already knew about our plan to betray Kang Taeseo, so you and he schemed together to counterattack……”

“So.”

Habin cut him off at that point. She neatly summarized what she had heard.

“In conclusion, you guys tried to betray Kang Taeseo, right?”

“Why are you asking when you already know!”

“And you were planning to kill a kid, making it look like an accident?”

“That’s……”

Hwang Maru flinched and stepped back as if he’d been caught. Hyun Habin stood up from her seat.

“Wow, now that I look closely, you lot are quite brazen, planning a group murder and all?”

Habin surveyed the hunters who had entered the room.

Their exchanged glances, the way they moved to cover for each other, everything confirmed they were all in this together.

Plus, the words spilling from Hwang Maru, who stood at the front.

‘These people, they really were all in on trying to kill Kang Taeseo?’

Finally certain of the truth, Habin glared at Hwang Maru.

“Ah, why do you keep digging when you already know! Do you think we’ll feel guilty? Do you think we’ll be scared?”

Hwang Maru shouted back, refusing to back down. He regained the confidence that had momentarily been swallowed by fear.

‘The opponent is just one hunter!’

Hwang Maru’s mind raced quickly.

Hyun Habin, being Kang Taeseo’s ‘classmate’ and ‘friend’, must be the same age as him.

‘No matter how calm she’s acting, she’s just a weakling! Trying to fool me, Hwang Maru!’

As far as Hwang Maru knew, there were no hunters as strong as Kang Taeseo at that age. In fact, Hwang Maru knew all the domestic rankers inside out.

The current rankings in Korea.

1st Kang Taeseo, 2nd Chae Jise.

Followed by Chae Jiseok, Baek Nayeon, Lee Junhwi.

‘And right after them is me, the 6th-ranked hunter in the country!’

Even if someone was hiding their strength, rankings were transparently public.

So no matter how great this ‘Hyun Habin’ in front of him might be, there’s no way she could be stronger than Hwang Maru.

‘Plus, we outnumber her.’

Hwang Maru glanced at the hunters who had taken battle stances alongside him and smiled confidently.

“Listen, kid, you seem to lack fear because you don’t know this world well yet, but whatever plan you have for facing us alone, you’re way off base.”

He gestured towards the back.

“…Alright, let’s just quickly take care of this one and then finish dealing with Kang Taeseo!”

‘Yes, sir!’

‘Let’s go!’

As soon as the words left his mouth, Hwang Maru and the hunters unleashed their attacks on Hyun Habin.

Crackle!

It was a sudden, unexpected ambush.

Whoosh! Bang!

Skills emitting various colors of light. The barrage of group attacks engulfed Habin in light, obscuring her from view.

‘That should do it.’

As his vision was blurred by the bright light, Hwang Maru was certain.

After all, they were the elite guild members of Caligo.

Even the monsters and bosses of most dungeons couldn’t withstand their coordinated attacks.

‘It shouldn’t be any different for a hunter…… Huh?’

As the dust cloud slowly settled and the blurry vision from the skill aftereffects cleared…

“Well, are you done spouting nonsense?”

“……?”

Hwang Maru turned pale as he discovered Hyun Habin standing there, completely unscathed.

◆◇◆◇◆

A few minutes later.

“…Kriksha, I’m asking out of curiosity again, but do you happen to have any rope here?”

Not long after, the Caligo guild members had been swept aside like fallen leaves.

As soon as the situation was sorted, Habin casually gestured to Kriksha. She maintained the same carefree posture as before, not having moved a step from the Demon King’s sofa.

“If you have any spare rope, tie these guys up.”

“……”

‘This is the great me’s office! Why would there be rope here!’

Kriksha, who had been stuck in a corner of the boss room.

He inwardly shouted as he looked at Hwang Maru and the other guild members sprawled on the floor.

‘You stupid! Stupid humans!’

He secretly glared at the guild members, grinding his teeth.

‘This is all because of you lot! Because of you, that scary human over there still hasn’t gone home!’

Kriksha seethed with anger all by himself.

Until just a moment ago, Kriksha had been in a good mood.

Because Hyun Habin had said she would leave quietly.

He had been doing an internal victory dance, thinking the scary human was finally going home. But thanks to these uninvited guests—Hwang Maru and his gang—it all went to waste. He chided the guild members as he tied them up tightly with his skill.

“Stupid humans! You worms! Do you know who that person is! To provoke her like that!”

“Oh, who am I?”

“……”

In truth, Kriksha didn’t know who Hyun Habin was either.

They had just met today for the first time.

Kriksha, who had awkwardly closed his mouth, carefully gauged the situation.

“…Anyway, I’ve tied them all up.”

“Good. Well done!”

Pat pat. Habin patted Kriksha’s shoulder as if to encourage him, then turned her head.

“Let’s see, now what should we do with these guys?”

“…Aren’t you going to kill them?”

Kriksha asked. By Kriksha’s standards, having lived as a Demon King all this time, anyone he disliked was automatically sentenced to death. Death!

That’s why there was no rope or anything like that here. ‘Don’t tie them up, just execute them’ was his life motto.

‘But why did she only tie them up and not kill them?’

“Perhaps……”

Kriksha’s expression changed as if he had realized something.

“I see! You were planning to torture these fellows first. As expected, your judgment is extraordinary!”

Kriksha grinned vilely.

‘In that case, I’ll play along with this human as much as possible and send her home quickly!’

Having decided to cooperate with Habin’s actions one way or another, Kriksha added excitedly.

“Torture, now that’s my specialty! After all, I am Kriksha, the Demon King, aren’t I? I know all the painful spots on a human body! We’ll start by twisting their fingers one by one, then pull out their nails……”

“Eeeek!”

Hwang Maru, who had hazily regained consciousness, secretly overheard this and let out a groan of terror.

“Oh, you’re awake?”

Habin tilted her head. Though she had hit them lightly, it seemed their recovery was fast, befitting top-ranked hunters in the country.

Besides Hwang Maru, a few others who had regained consciousness and grasped the situation bowed their heads.

“P-please spare us!”

“Just our lives, please!”

“I have several dependents. Please, if I don’t return, my family will……”

“So you do value your own lives, huh?”

Habin frowned.

“You try to kill someone as a group, but your own lives are precious, right?”

“……”

“And the person you were trying to kill wasn’t just anyone, it was Taeseo, Kang Taeseo! Your guild master who was like family!”

Habin had occasionally seen interviews of Kang Taeseo and the Caligo guild members broadcast on TV.

‘They’re like family to me.’

‘They’re comrades I can trust in battle.’

Everyone said those interviews were just for image-making. But Habin felt differently.

‘Especially since Taeseo lost all his real family and has no one else to rely on!’

“…Taeseo must be hurt.”

To think the guild members he trusted had stabbed him in the back.

Habin briefly recalled a memory from her school days.

Back then, Taeseo was truly a kind-hearted child who couldn’t even hurt a fly.

Once, he found an injured stray cat and, not knowing what to do, skipped school and rushed it to an animal hospital.

Habin blurted out without thinking:

“…He was already such a sensitive and kind kid! Are you going to take responsibility if he becomes twisted because of the hurt you caused?”

At those words, the crouching guild members started murmuring.

‘S-sensitive…? Kind…?’

‘What nonsense is that……’

‘Is it sarcasm?’

“How much do you think Taeseo relied on you all to live? And you stab him in the back like this? You’re absolutely terrible!”

“Yes, that’s right. Even I, a Demon King, can see they’re definitely bad guys.”

“See, even Kriksha thinks you’re trash!”

“Well, I said they were bad guys, not trash……”

“Shush!”

“……”

Hwang Maru and his gang. They had suddenly become trash certified even by a Demon King.

Habin, not losing the heated momentum, shouted:

“Moreover, Taeseo is a friend I really care about! Without Taeseo, I can’t even play hooky. God Taeseo, the free pass for skipping! How dare you try to kill such a good guy!”

[…Could that possibly have been your true feelings?]

A very good friend who guaranteed Hyun Habin could skip training institute sessions. An excellent classmate who knew how to consider power and privacy!

Thanks to Kang Taeseo, Habin had already skipped training institute classes twice.

“Ahem! A-anyway, he’s an important friend to me! You messed with the wrong person!”

Habin tapped the flat of Ahezar’s blade lightly with her other hand.

“For now, let’s have you take some more beatings, equal to the mental damage Taeseo suffered.”