Chapter 1
Sometimes there are days like that.
A day when everything feels like it will be fine.
For some reason, small bits of luck kept piling up today.
On the subway during rush hour, I managed to get an empty seat. The first report I had little hope for came back with an unexpectedly high score.
The campus cafeteria I visited for the first time in a while was serving all the popular dishes, and even the playlist I happened to find matched my taste perfectly.
At this point, calling the day perfect wouldn’t have felt like an exaggeration.
When my eyelids slowly closed and opened again, the scenery outside the train window had already changed.
Before I knew it, the sky had turned a faint reddish color, and everything around me felt peaceful.
It was the same scenery as yesterday, yet somehow it felt special today.
As I pulled the slipping strap of my bag back onto my shoulder, my attention was drawn somewhere else.
A man stood up and gave his seat to an elderly person who had just entered from the next carriage.
A gentle smile spread across the old man’s face. As he sat down, he quietly pulled the heavy bag off the man’s shoulder.
I felt the corners of my lips lift for no reason and leaned deeper into the backrest.
Once I got home, I’d take a shower, lie down for a bit, eat tteokbokki while looking up materials for another assignment—
Tap, tap, tap.
‘What’s that sound?’
A strange noise slipped into the lazy music flowing through my ears. Thinking something might be wrong with my earphones, I took one out, just as the person next to me muttered to himself.
“Is it broken?”
As people around me began looking up at the ceiling, I naturally raised my head as well.
The flickering lights gradually went out one by one, and in an instant, the entire carriage was swallowed by darkness.
“What? What’s going on?”
“Did the power go out?”
Kiiiiii—!
At that moment, amid the rising commotion, the subway car began to shake violently.
“Ahhh!”
Before I could grab the handle next to me, my body lurched forward, and I fell to the floor, catching myself with my hands.
“Ugh.”
Blunt objects struck the back of my hand as they slid past.
A child’s crying, people bumping into each other, and the chaos of the shaking carriage tangled.
Then something incredibly strange came into view ahead of me.
“What is that…?”
Someone behind me gasped.
The space between the seats was beginning to distort.
Soon the distortion tore open into a gap.
As if an invisible blade had sliced the air vertically.
“Someone call emergency services!”
No matter how much I searched, I couldn’t find my phone. It must have flown somewhere when I fell.
From the pitch-black crack, cold, damp air began to seep out.
A thick wind carrying the smell of iron… no, blood brushed unpleasantly against the tip of my nose.
Then something flashed beyond the distorted space, and the crack suddenly went quiet.
“Move to the next carriage, quickly!”
Sensing something terribly wrong, I staggered to my feet and shouted.
But my voice was drowned out by the people screaming.
“Damn it, open the door!”
“You want us to die trapped in here?!”
People had already rushed toward the door connecting the carriages, but for some reason it wouldn’t open.
Bang!
Just as the subway shook again, a woman clinging to a seat slid toward the crack.
“Please help me…!”
Seeing her through my eyes now adjusted to the darkness, my body moved before I could think.
I grabbed her arm and used the small recoil to shove her back behind me.
A sharp numbness shot through my arm as if electricity ran between my bones.
…This is ridiculous.
In a situation like this, not a single hunter was in sight.
Then the black space of the crack trembled once and released a horrifying screech.
Kyaaah—!
As if that were a signal, the thick claw of a monstrous creature emerged and stabbed straight into the subway floor.
Death.
That chilling word stuck in my throat.
At the same time, every sound ringing in my ears suddenly faded away.
“…?”
My head, lowered in fear, instinctively snapped up.
Even the monster staring directly at me seemed to move in slow motion.
And then my vision brightened.
[The Constellation “Guardian of Tae-won” hopes to grant its breath to your sight.]
A blue window flickered before my eyes in the darkness.
The screeching brakes and the panicked cries of the passengers seemed to push me forward.
I reached my hand into the air.
[The Constellation “Guardian of Tae-won” shows a satisfied smile toward you.]
At that moment, clear colors covered the monster’s body.
My senses sharpened abnormally. As the slow motion faded, the monster’s footsteps sounded like thunder.
[By the arrangement of the Constellation “Guardian of Tae-won,” the “Sealed Guardian’s Greatsword (S)” is bound to the contractor.]
With those incomprehensible words, heat spread to my fingertips.
A heavy, unfamiliar weight filled my palm.
Instinctively, I swung my arm and crossed that something between the claws raised above my head.
Clang—!
As the blades collided, I slashed downward with the long greatsword.
The monster’s scream mixed with the sound of its shell slicing open.
Its blood-red foreleg slammed into the subway window, shattering the glass.
Fragments scattered everywhere and scraped against my skin, yet strangely I felt no pain.
After that, I moved without even thinking.
Matching the monster’s movements, I staggered back and forth, blocked its whipping tail with the sword, and pushed back against its massive body with all my strength.
“What the—who is that person? A hunter?”
“There’s another one here—ahhh!”
I heard people shouting somewhere, but I didn’t look.
I felt like I might lose focus if I did.
How much time had passed?
My lungs were tightening, and my fingertips burned.
I jammed the tip of the sword into the cracked floor to support my exhausted body.
Another monster’s eyes locked onto me.
Ah… when will this end?
I hoped that one was the last.
Grinding my teeth, I steadied myself.
Same species. Same weak point.
As it opened its mouth wide—
I thrust the blade straight into it.
At that moment, the deep purple light surrounding the entire blade suddenly vanished.
“…Huh?”
Before I could even react, the strength drained from my arms as if something had snapped.
My racing heartbeat slowed.
Then all the sounds around me returned at once.
People sobbing.
Notification alarms ringing from phones.
And an announcement filled with static.
My body collapsed.
Just as I imagined the pain that would follow—
Someone caught me firmly.
“…”
It was a sudden, unfamiliar warmth.
Through my blurred vision I could make out the outline of someone’s face.
Nothing more.
As I stared blankly, a low voice brushed past my ear.
“Breathe slowly.”
Just one calm sentence, spoken as if they already understood my condition.
I held onto that single sentence, waiting for the next one.
But I couldn’t stay conscious any longer.
In the end, I fell into deep darkness.
***
The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was a white ceiling.
The more I blinked, the clearer the dull sensations became.
“You’re awake.”
A stranger’s voice mixed with the steady beeping of machines.
Turning my head slowly, I saw a woman in a suit walking toward me.
Her straight posture and confident steps stood out.
A silver badge glinted on the collar of her jacket.
Seeing it, a hollow laugh slipped from my lips.
“Fortunately, you don’t have any injuries.”
I closed my eyes briefly.
The sudden crack in space.
The monstrous scream.
And the unfamiliar person who caught me at the last moment.
Fragments of those scenes flashed through my mind.
“Um… how did I get to the hospital?”
“Thanks to the reports from people at the scene.”
“…Were there any casualties?”
“Everyone was rescued safely.”
My voice was quickly buried beneath the woman’s flat tone.
Even so, I couldn’t take my eyes off the badge.
It was the same emblem stamped on countless documents my father used to handle.
“Now then, could you answer a few questions?”
The woman pulled over a chair and sat down at the foot of my bed.
In the end, I had fallen into the association’s hands.
Or perhaps—
though I had tried to deny it—
I had always been living inside their grasp from the very beginning.
At that moment, I heard someone speaking quietly on the phone outside the door.
Maybe the person on the other end was…
“I have a lot I want to ask too. Let’s take turns.”
The Association’s surveillance began that day.
I hid, and the world forgot about me.
But I could never escape them.
Because right now—
My feet were standing in front of the academy.
