Retire 461

461 Every Hunters’ Nightmare (1)

The tiresome bond between hunters and fairies—when did it begin? In truth, no one could say for certain. It simply settled into place, as if it had always been there. Fairies are dangerous. Never enter a dungeon where fairies appear. When killing a fairy, never let your guard down.

There are plenty of monsters more dangerous than fairies. Some, quite literally, devour humans, stripping them to the bone; others swallow people whole, leaving not a trace behind.

There are monsters as large as houses, like the griffin I faced not long ago, and if you looked, you could find ones even larger. Or, conversely, there are those whose forms are so insubstantial, you begin to question whether they are even living creatures at all.

And it wasn’t just monsters—there were dungeons that devoured people, too.

So why, of all things, is it the fairy that inspires such dread?

It’s not as if they’re especially large, nor do they possess grotesque forms. Abilities? Of course, they’re troublesome. But there’s no shortage of monsters with bizarre powers that aren’t fairies….

No one ever offered a clear answer to that question.

Yet every hunter carried their own answer within.

Those who never had to face a fairy themselves—perhaps lured by tales of their beauty—seemed not to grasp the danger. But hunters were different. Any hunter who had encountered a fairy, even once…

“This dungeon is off limits.”

“…Why?”

“It’s dangerous.”

“……”

My father rather liked the idea of me entering dungeons. He was always the sort to tell me to do whatever I wanted, but that didn’t mean there weren’t things he hoped I would do.

Not that he ever pressured me, exactly….

Still, whenever someone nearby would say, “Hunter Hong, I heard your son cleared another S-class dungeon! You must be so proud to have such a fine son!” his mouth would split into a wide grin, and he would boast, “Hahaha, I can’t say I raised him. He’s always been so capable on his own, I haven’t done much at all,” his voice brimming with pride as he talked about me.

Honestly, I wanted to pretend not to notice, but it was so ridiculous to see him so delighted in front of others, only to clam up when it was just the two of us, that I couldn’t bring myself to ignore it.

So, in a way, the reason I didn’t refuse when I occasionally entered a dungeon in Han Taekyung’s place was a kind of filial piety.

“But, you’re the one who taught me all dungeons are dangerous, Uncle.”

“Hm.”

“And now you’re telling me not to go in because it’s dangerous? Why?”

“Hmmm.”

“What is it? What are you hiding?”

“Heejae.”

For the first time, my father stopped me from doing what I wanted.

“Go somewhere else. Not here.”

Whenever he wanted to keep me from doing something, he would always explain, and then give me the choice. He would say, I’d rather you didn’t, but if you insist, I’ll support you.

Sometimes I listened to him and gave up; other times, I stubbornly did as I pleased. Either way, he kept his word. Instead of refusing to explain, he was always firm.

Well, I suppose he did explain, in his way.

“There’s a nasty one in that dungeon. I’ll go in instead—don’t you go.”

And before I could protest, he really did go into the dungeon himself.

There was a fairy in that dungeon.

From then on, my father forbade me from entering any dungeon where a fairy or a monster with a human-like appearance might appear. Even when my sister yelled at him to stop being so overbearing, he wouldn’t listen.

At first, I was as frustrated as she was, but eventually, I let it go. It wasn’t as if I went into dungeons that often anyway… and if I could pass the job off to someone else, wasn’t that for the best? I knew all too well the fairies’ terrible reputation, so I told myself it was a relief not to have to hunt such troublesome creatures.

So much later—when I finally saw a fairy with my own eyes—

I understood why the human-shaped monster called a fairy earned Hunter Hong Seokyoung’s wariness, why it was called every hunter’s nightmare.

It was so repulsive, I wanted to look away at once.

It was so beautiful, I wanted to watch it just a little longer.

It was not human. Yet it looked human.

A monster with sharp teeth and claws, as large as a house, was preferable. At least you could instantly recognize it as an enemy to be destroyed.

But a body so like a human’s, slender arms and legs, a beautiful face—some, depending on the species, looked almost indistinguishable from people.

Because they so closely resembled humans, the sense of unease was all the greater.

Their intelligence was high enough to learn human language, and they would set traps to lure hunters in.

They would make the dungeon look empty, or manipulate the terrain so that hunters killed each other.

Hunters who fought fairies often said that it didn’t feel like killing a “monster” tormenting humanity, but like killing a “human.”

The power of appearance.

Well, it’s hard to say it’s just their looks. Intelligent monsters are always difficult. Even with animals, the smart ones are hard to catch—so how much more so with these…?

And I always thought they’d been given the wrong name. Just because they had wings, calling them fairies—really, they should have been called four-legged insect monsters.

“…!”

Flap-flap-flap.

A frantic, almost vulgar fluttering of wings filled the air. Golden dust rose, drifting on a breeze from somewhere, swirling weightlessly.

Before the gold dust could spread further, I swung my sword at the empty air. Daniel ducked his head, flustered.

Thud.

I had cut it.

A black mass, invisible until now, fell to the ground in two halves. Golden dust burst up around it, blooming like pollen.

And then—

“Aaaaaaaah!!!!”

The bisected fairy screamed. The sound was chilling, like a baby’s wail.

Even with its upper and lower halves joined, it was barely the size of a palm. The fluffy black tuft of fur could easily be mistaken for an oversized moth rather than a monster. You’d never see a bug that big in Korea, but wasn’t this America, the land of opportunity?

Of course, in a dungeon, no matter how much it looked like a bug, it was still a monster.

Just as my sister had described.

It resembled a moth, covered in black fur. Its wings, which scattered golden dust, bore faint gray patterns. The wings and torso were shrouded in black hair, but the arms, legs, and head had smooth, human-like skin. The head, except for the nose and mouth, was hidden as if wearing a fur hat. Aside from the sharp teeth, its appearance wasn’t particularly repulsive. In fact, if you looked only at its features, you might even call it cute.

But—

“…Damn it, here they come again!”

My father yanked the half-collapsed Daniel to his feet. If he stayed down, he’d be eaten alive.

Golden dust rose in the air once more.

The baby’s wail stopped. Han Taekyung, unable to bear it any longer, finished it off completely. At the same time, my father swung his spear, imbued with magic. It was less a slash than a blow meant to unleash a shockwave.

Crack!

The impact was followed by the sound of insects colliding. Not just once—several times.

I swung my sword toward the source of the sound. Flames erupted. The fire, searching for something to burn, quickly found its prey.

“Aaaaah!!”

“Aaah!!!”

The fairies, now ablaze, flailed and crashed to the ground. Their screams still sounded like babies.

Even knowing they weren’t real infants, the sound gnawed at my nerves.

I clenched my teeth.

Again, I saw the golden dust.

My sister’s notes had not been wrong. In this dungeon we’d entered, fairies had appeared.

Fairies with black fur, resembling moths.

The problem was, there wasn’t just one.

---

“We can’t just keep doing this.”

“What about retreating to the gate?”

“It’s possible, but…”

“I don’t know what will happen if we try to re-enter.”

“What about the method you used in Okinawa, Senior?”

“This dungeon is too large.”

“At least around the gate—”

“Then it’ll just happen again, Senior. We don’t even know where the main body is. If we do that, they’ll just send more little ones to harass us.”

Silence fell.

My father narrowed his eyes at Hope.

“The main body, you say?”

“Think about it, Master. I haven’t hunted as many fairies as you, but… this attack pattern is too monotonous, don’t you think?”

“Hm.”

“It could be like this at first. But how many times have they used the same attack? Maybe ‘main body’ is too grand a term, but there has to be a leader. Like a queen ant commanding her workers.”

“Worker ants, huh.”

The small fairies weren’t much of a threat. They were a bit tricky because they were invisible, but once you got the hang of it, they were easy to deal with.

But there was no end.

We’d killed at least a few hundred by now, yet still, they kept coming with the golden dust. Actually, “coming at us” wasn’t quite right. They were simply charging forward.

“The junior is right, Master! You know this, too, don’t you? Like in Slovenia…”

“I know. Slovenia, at the edge of the Alps.”

“There were a lot of troublesome ones there.”

My father glared with distaste at the small fairy corpses scattered at his feet.

His frustration with the situation was searching for a scapegoat.

“Are we sure this isn’t some American prank?”

“Pardon? N-no, when we investigated, there was nothing like this!”

Daniel, who had worn a dazed expression since the fairy attack, snapped to attention. Having witnessed what happened in Okinawa up close, it was no wonder he was frightened for a different reason now.

Not that I was really blaming America, but it didn’t hurt to try when I could. It was only middle managers like Daniel who got pushed around anyway.

If he got fired from his job, maybe I could recruit him…

A healer who could fight, and besides that, he was quite competent. Our guild was always short on people.

“Even at the last check, yes. Really. As I said, this dungeon is jointly managed by the resident Vegas guild and the military. There’s no way they could hide something like this!”

“Right, right. I’m not blaming you.”

“But we do need to be sure.”

I patted Daniel’s shoulder with a meaningful look.

“Even if we’re generous and say the Okinawa dungeon wasn’t visited often, this place isn’t like that. If these things had been hiding all this time, maybe it would make sense… but we need to be certain, right?”

Daniel’s face went from white to blue and back again, a mess. I decided to chalk it up to fear at the unexpected appearance of the fairies.

We shifted the conversation back to how we would tackle this dungeon. The original strategy I’d prepared was useless now, since it hadn’t accounted for fairies.

“At first, I thought they might be like the fairies in the Okinawa dungeon.”

Kim Chaemin spoke up slowly.

“You know, those fairies controlled butterflies, right? Not just butterflies—they controlled other fairies, too. So I wondered if, when there are several fairies in one dungeon, there’s some kind of hierarchy. The weaker ones are dominated by the stronger.”

“Hmm… that makes sense.”

“Right? But even so, this is just too meaningless.”

Kim Chaemin frowned.

“When Han said ‘main body,’ it made me think of something else.”

“Like what?”

“That maybe these really are worker ants… or workers, anyway.”

“Workers?”

“Like ants or bees. They move and work along designated paths, following hormones or something.”

Kim Chaemin raised a hand and pointed in the direction from which the fairies kept appearing.

“They’re not attacking us—they just happen to be working along a path, and we’re standing in their way.”