63 - Chapter 61: Tying Up Loose Ends
Natalia stood before her destination—a door secured with a digital lock.
A guard stood beside it, looking thoroughly sluggish.
'A lock and a guard. I suppose they tried to make an effort in their own way.'
Even so, it was nothing more than security theater.
It wasn't because they actually expected it to work; it was likely just a token measure to give themselves some peace of mind.
With that thought, Natalia slipped into the guard's blind spot and extended a single finger.
A spark of electricity crackled at her fingertip before shooting straight toward him.
"Gah...?!"
Taking the current head-on, the guard collapsed to the floor without even a proper scream, instantly pissing himself.
Natalia's precise control of the voltage had completely fried his nervous system, seizing his muscles up rock-hard.
After quietly subduing him, Natalia gagged and bound the guard as he writhed on the floor.
With that taken care of, she immediately moved on to the next step, reaching out to send a surge of electricity directly into the digital lock.
Overloaded by the sudden surge, the lock short-circuited and died.
Before it could even trigger an alarm, Natalia ripped the broken lock right off the door with sheer, brute force.
Stepping into the room, she saw a boy sitting on the sofa, bound and blindfolded.
Even with his eyes covered, Natalia recognized him instantly.
'Han Su-hyeon...'
It was Han Su-hyeon.
They were still in enemy territory. Forcing her racing heart to calm down, Natalia approached him.
As she drew closer, the signs of abuse covering his body came into sharp focus.
Natalia reached out to remove his blindfold.
"Ngh..."
At her touch, Han Su-hyeon, who had been sitting as still as a doll, flinched violently. That reaction, combined with the marks on his skin, made it painfully clear what he had been subjected to.
Feeling him tremble beneath her fingertips, Natalia bit her lower lip and gently pulled off the blindfold.
"Ah..."
With the blindfold gone, Han Su-hyeon squeezed his eyes shut, squinting against the sudden light.
He blinked several times before finally managing to keep his eyes open. When he saw Natalia standing before him, his face went completely blank with shock.
Seeing his expression, Natalia let out a soft chuckle.
"What's with that face? You look like you didn't expect me to come save you."
Natalia teased as she began to untie the ropes binding him.
"Honestly, I was thinking about leaving you here."
Despite her teasing words, she gently took his newly freed hand. Then, she reached into her pocket and pulled something out.
"But I already bought the ring, and it would be a shame to let it go to waste."
She held up the wedding ring she had bought the very day he was kidnapped, carefully slipping it onto his left ring finger.
"Let's go home."
"...Yes."
Only then did reality finally set in. As the tension drained from his body, his trembling grew even more violent.
Tears welled in his eyes and instantly spilled over. Before he even realized what he was doing, he threw himself into her arms. It was the first time he had ever initiated a hug, and a quiet wave of happiness washed over her.
"Ugh... hic... sob... ahhh..."
Cradling the sobbing, shivering boy with one arm, Natalia stood up.
And right at that moment—
An Su-min materialized behind Natalia, completely masking her presence.
An Su-min was a natural-born mage.
Her magic was teleportation.
The fact that she had managed to kidnap Han Su-hyeon right from under an S-rank Hunter's nose was entirely due to this innate ability.
Now, she held a needle-sharp skewer coated in a special poison lethal enough to take down even an S-class Awakener in an instant.
The moment she materialized, An Su-min lunged forward to strike.
Or rather, she tried to.
"Gark... cough..."
An Su-min's muscles seized up involuntarily at the sudden, agonizing sensation of a foreign object piercing her throat.
"Whoa, you startled me. Where did you pop out from?"
Before she could even thrust her weapon, Natalia had already driven a dagger straight through her throat.
'H-How...?'
An Su-min's mind reeled. She had been countered. She had masked her presence perfectly and struck instantly. No matter how experienced an S-rank Hunter was, reacting this quickly should have been impossible unless they had anticipated the attack and were already on guard.
As if answering her silent confusion, Natalia yanked the dagger free and muttered to herself.
"I don't know what kind of magic you used, but this bastard really was a mage after all. Otherwise, there's no way you could've kidnapped him so easily."
From the moment Han Su-hyeon was taken right from under her nose, Natalia had anticipated that the culprit might be a mage.
Specifically, one with magic tailored for stealth and infiltration.
Spitting a thick glob of saliva right onto the face of the dying woman—who now had a gaping hole in her throat—Natalia turned and walked out of the building.
Later that same day, after rescuing Han Su-hyeon, Natalia headed to a bar.
When she entered the private room she had reserved, someone was already waiting for her—a middle-aged man who looked to be in his late forties or fifties.
'Veteran S-rank Hunter Kim Ui-gyeom.'
He had awakened around the same time as Jang Hyeong-seok, and was a prominent elder who deeply disapproved of his peer's actions.
Jang Hyeong-seok had firmly established his own faction within the Hunter industry, leveraging his political savvy to consolidate power.
And the one who had been most vocal in his concern over Jang's growing influence was none other than Kim Ui-gyeom.
Kim Ui-gyeom wasn't jealous of Jang's power; he was genuinely worried that Jang and his faction would eventually reign supreme over all other Hunters.
Now that Jang had gone so far as to threaten an S-rank Hunter trying to retire, Kim's fears had proven prophetic.
But because the S-rank Hunters outside of Jang's faction were generally apathetic to politics and power struggles, no one had paid attention to Kim's warnings.
Humans are foolish creatures; even when warned of impending danger, they rarely pay attention until the fire is licking at their heels.
It was no different from how society routinely ignored massive crises like climate change.
Natalia had been no different.
At least, until Jang Hyeong-seok's threats became a reality.
"You're here."
Natalia gave a brief nod and took a seat opposite him.
"So, what's this about? Why did you want to meet?"
"I got my hands on something your side can put to good use."
Answering his straightforward question, Natalia pulled a USB drive from her pocket.
"Plug this in when you get home. You'll find an audio file on it."
"An audio file...?"
"Yeah. And this is a preview of what's on it."
After handing over the USB, Natalia pulled out her phone and hit play.
Soon, the recording of Jang Hyeong-seok threatening Natalia played from the speaker.
To motivate people who refuse to act until the fire is licking at their heels, you simply have to show them that they're already burning.
'And this recording is more than enough proof.'
Once she handed this over, Kim Ui-gyeom would handle the distribution to the other S-rank Hunters himself.
The independent Hunters—who despised playing politics and pandering to Jang, and who valued their absolute privileges as S-ranks above all else—would have no choice but to form a temporary alliance.
All for the sake of taking Jang Hyeong-seok down.
Since the independent S-ranks outnumbered Jang's faction, a united front would easily allow them to overpower him.
"Ha..."
"That bastard thought I was brainless. He never in his wildest dreams imagined I'd record him."
Jang had likely been playing the long game, carefully laying his groundwork like slowly boiling a frog, but his fatal mistake was underestimating Natalia based on her past behavior.
"Well, I've given you what you need, so I'll be on my way. I'm actually pretty busy—I've got retirement paperwork to finalize and a marriage to register."
With her business concluded, Natalia stood up and left the bar.
A few days later, Jang Hyeong-seok died under mysterious circumstances. To the public, it was announced as a sudden death due to a chronic illness, with no further details released.
A few conspiracy theorists flooded online forums with posts claiming that Jang had been perfectly healthy and was actually assassinated by other S-rank Hunters, but no one took them seriously.
Having suddenly lost their leader and been reduced to a minority, Jang's faction scattered like grains of sand.
Since they had only banded together for personal gain in the first place, not a single one of them stepped forward to seek revenge.
Amidst the chaos, Natalia was able to quietly retire from the Hunter industry.
However, because the rescued Han Su-hyeon suffered from severe panic disorder, their planned wedding had to be canceled.