* * *
Suddenly, a thought struck Park Bora, causing her to stop abruptly.
She even let out a surprised sound without realizing it.
“Huh? Guide Park, what’s wrong?”
Song Jihee, walking a half step behind her, turned around, her face filled with curiosity.
“Oh, no… It’s nothing…”
Park Bora shook her head, trying to brush it off, though her mind was racing.
‘Come to think of it, the Chunho Guild Leader’s attitude earlier was strange.’
Their leader had lifted him with telekinesis, which was unusual since that wasn’t one of Doyoung’s officially known abilities.
But Beom Sinje…
‘Could he know?’
Her gaze shifted once again to Beom Sinje, who was walking briskly ahead.
◇◆◇◆◇
The group left the lab and headed straight for the city.
“At least Charybdis stayed quiet while we retreated.”
“After gulping and spitting water so recklessly, it must be exhausted.”
“So, it will probably act up again soon? Will the lab survive next time?”
“Who knows. At this rate, it might collapse soon.”
As Park Bora and Song Jihee chatted back and forth, Song Jihee shuddered.
The scariest enemies are those you can’t see.
They assumed the monsters in the dungeon were named after mythical creatures, so they thought they could find more information online.
‘The Guild Leader must have seen it…’
She glanced back.
Beom Sinje, seated in the back, was still holding the unconscious Doyoung in his arms.
Worried he might fall if the car jolted, Beom Sinje had placed him on his lap, letting Doyoung lean against him, holding him tightly with his long, strong arms.
‘So our Guild Leader can have such an expression…’
Song Jihee thought something similar to what Park Bora had felt earlier.
She realized there was a difference in how he treated Doyoung compared to others.
‘Well, they did say he was amazing back in the S-rank dungeon…’
When the S-rank dungeon broke out, she was on the support team in the rear, so she didn’t know what happened during the confrontation with the boss monster.
Later, hearing whispers about strange tensions between Jang Jihae and Hyegyun, and rumors about their Guild Leader’s unusual behavior, she could only guess.
When rumors of a romantic relationship between the two started spreading within the guild, Song Jihee was skeptical.
She couldn’t imagine Doyoung being in a relationship with their Guild Leader.
“Hey, look.”
Lee Jihoon suddenly shoved his phone screen in front of Song Jihee’s face, cutting off her thoughts.
“Is this Charybdis?”
“Yeah.”
“It has teeth in the water.”
That was the only way to describe it.
It looked like a massive hole in the sea, with huge stakes stuck inside, leading into a dark, jagged opening.
“If a ship got sucked in there, it would be destroyed, let alone escape.”
“Exactly.”
“They really named it perfectly.”
If it looked anything like that, it made sense.
Once again, Song Jihee glanced at Beom Sinje, who was still cradling Doyoung.
And then, their eyes met.
‘Gasp.’
The Guild Leader’s eyes were dark as an abyss, giving off a menacing vibe, like a flash of lightning hidden behind black clouds.
‘Wow… The Guild Leader looks really angry…’
Pretending to avert her gaze, she looked at Doyoung, who was still unconscious.
‘Please wake up, Secretary. Otherwise, something serious might happen.’
She had come to see Doyoung as the only one capable of controlling Beom Sinje.
“They say its true form is unknown. Some say it doesn’t have one, others say it lost its form after being cursed and falling into the sea.”
Unaware of Song Jihee’s troubled thoughts, Lee Jihoon spoke in a somewhat carefree tone.
“What we saw is different from that.”
Song Jihee looked at her colleague with a bit of envy.
At times like this, it seemed fortunate to be so carefree.
Honestly, she didn’t want to be involved in their romantic affairs.
What employee wants to be tangled in their boss’s personal matters?
‘But how can you not notice something so obvious…!’
She sighed quietly in frustration.
“So I looked through the monster encyclopedia on Hunters.com. But for some reason, there’s no description of this one. Just the name, no details on where it was discovered or anything.”
Unaware of what was happening in the back seat or her thoughts, Lee Jihoon rambled on.
Song Jihee, deciding it was better to steer the conversation that way, asked curiously.
“Was it at least registered on Hunters.com?”
“It’s not on the official government site, though.”
Hearing their conversation, Park Bora suddenly joined in.
“If it hasn’t been found in any domestic dungeons, there’s no way the government would bother updating that info.”
“True… Still, our country’s usually the best at uploading the latest data. Strange.”
Song Jihee tilted her head.
She was someone with extensive experience in sorting and researching monster data, having previously worked for a government agency exploring dungeons before transferring to the Chunho Guild.
Even for her, it was surprising that such a monster didn’t exist in her memory.
Unlike Jihoon, who had only ever followed orders at the lowest level, Jihee had been a veteran on exploration teams.
Jihoon grinned innocently.
“Then maybe what we saw earlier is something new!”
How could he be so clueless and naive?
He was the same age as her, yet sometimes he felt like an immature younger brother.
Jihee shook her head in disbelief.
Park Bora sank into thought.
‘So that’s why everyone fled. They were hiding something like that… I knew it was suspicious when they left things so clean. I didn’t expect them to abandon something like this.’
Seriously, what’s wrong with those dungeon ecology researchers?
It’s bad enough that they let a monster escape outside the dungeon, but to run away without taking responsibility—she was genuinely furious.
‘If it were our guild master, no way that would fly!’
He was meticulous about things like this.
As Park Bora fumed quietly, Beom Sinje glanced at Do-yeong, who was still resting in his arms.
The groaning had stopped, and there were no more convulsions.
It seemed like he’d fallen asleep to recover his depleted strength.
‘Has his ability returned?’
In the heat of the moment, there hadn’t been time to process it, but now that he thought about it, it seemed unlikely that he’d just overcome the aftereffects.
“Hah…”
If he was able to handle it so skillfully at such a critical moment, it meant he might have recovered long ago.
So why did he hide it from me?
Letting out a sigh, Sinje’s gaze shifted.
His eyes sharpened when he noticed a car traveling in the same direction, some distance away.
‘Is that a tour vehicle?’
It looked similar to the one their group was in.
The only difference was the heavily tinted windows, making it hard to see inside.
“Mr. Lee Namsoo.”
At the calm but firm call, the driver, Lee Namsoo, met Sinje’s eyes through the rearview mirror.
“Can you find another route into the city besides the one we’re on now?”
“Yes, I can.”
Rather than asking for a reason, Namsoo simply nodded.
“Turn us around.”
Without hesitation, he adjusted the steering wheel.
The other guild members began to notice something odd, glancing outside.
“Huh? What’s with that vehicle?”
Song Jihee spotted the jeep trailing behind at a distance.
Jihoon and Park Chano also turned their attention that way.
Sinje remained silent, keeping his eyes on the car that had followed their turn.
Just as he suspected, it seemed they were being watched.
“Do we know how long they’ve been following us?”
Without looking away, Sinje asked.
But none of the others had noticed.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t catch it.”
Park Bora immediately apologized, scanning the fast-approaching vehicle.
The tint was too dark to see inside.
Even with a hunter’s sharp vision, it was hard to tell who was in there from this distance.
‘They probably accounted for that too…’
What could it be?
Narrowing her eyes, Bora’s expression hardened as a thought crossed her mind.
“Could they be tied to the research lab?”
Considering the timing, that was the only plausible explanation for a car tailing them.
“Let’s find out.”
As soon as Sinje spoke, Namsoo understood his intent and turned the wheel again.
This time, they headed straight toward the car that had been following from afar.
* * *
Thank you for the translatiom