Meanwhile, there was someone else who, like Kang Seodam, was racking her brains over "Mr. Seo Jio."

"..."

"What's wrong, Luda?"

"... Um..."

It was none other than Iru-da, Kang Seodam's student and a prospective priest.

"It's because of the gift I received last time."

"Ah, the one Jio hyung gave you? That flower?"

"Yes, that dried flower."

"Didn't he say it was medicinal? You said you liked taking medicine. Can't you just eat it?"

"... That would be the simplest way, but no matter how I think about it, it isn't an ordinary medicinal herb..."

This was a medicinal herb that none other than the Sun Goddess herself had looked upon.

'And that subtle greed I felt from the divinity back then...'

It was already extremely rare for a divine being to covet a human possession, but the one who had shown that greed this time was the Sun Goddess, who loved the natural order of fate and pure innocence.

'Fundamentally, she is not someone who would covet anything.'

For such a divinity to poke the side of Iru-da herself, a worthless prospective priest, was truly absurd.

"How did it come to this?"

"What's the problem?"

"I think I received a gift that's far too precious."

She had not told Cha Yisol about her confusion until now, thinking the matter might grow far larger than she imagined, but even that had reached its limit today.

Iru-da needed a witness.

"Cha Yisol."

"Yeah, what can I help with?"

"That hyung you're so close to..."

"You mean Jio hyung?"

"Yes, is he always like that?"

"Uh... like what?"

"Does he always go around handing out gifts like this?"

"Yeah!"

"..."

At that cool, decisive affirmation, Iru-da momentarily lost her words.

"... Why?"

"He said when he sees people, they're so admirable that he wants to give them gifts."

"Why on earth?"

"He says there's no reason not to give them, so why shouldn't he..."

"What exactly is the problem?"

"That is the problem."

"A gift isn't just a gift."

In truth, even the fruit jelly he had given Cha Yisol had felt a little excessive.

According to Cha Yisol, he was a hyung he had somehow become close to, but an acquaintance he had only met a few times had given an ignorant child a far too expensive gift.

And the gift Iru-da received was even more so.

"When I said I liked medicinal herbs, it wasn't because I actually wanted to receive medicinal herbs...!"

Usually, when she said she liked medicinal herbs, adults looked bewildered, as if they were seeing something they could not understand, then soon ignored it and moved on.

No, to begin with, she had never imagined there would actually be someone carrying medicinal herbs around.

"Cha Yisol, what do you sense from this dried flower?"

"The smell of sunshine?"

"What else?"

"The softness of a blanket dried well in the sun?"

"In any case, it's the Sun, right? Right? It is the Sun, isn't it?"

"Aren't the Sun and sunshine a little different? One is incredibly hot and the other is warm."

"It's the difference between beating someone and stroking them; either way, it's the same hand."

Contrary to the commonly known image of the Sun Cult, the actual light of the Sun was extremely violent.

The better one could gather it neatly and control it delicately, the better a priest of the Sun one could become.

And making a medicinal herb filled with such sunlight from the Sun was an exceedingly difficult task.

Without talent, one could not even attempt it, and with the slightest mistake, the fragile medicinal herb would burn in the Sun's fire.

"..."

As expected, this was a gift far too precious for Iru-da to handle.

"... Could he have given me this gift to screw me over..."

"Why would you eat taffy?"

"... I was thinking that this Seo Jio person might have given me this gift to put me in trouble."

"Huh? I don't think so. Why do you think that?"

"Mercy beyond one's station can drive a lowly beggar on the roadside to death."

"But Luda isn't a beggar."

"Of course I am a Grade 1 citizen and on the wealthy side among humans, but even considering that, in this situation, I am a beggar."

"You always talk too difficult."

"It's a gift far beyond me, so my safety is in danger. Too precious a treasure attracts many people who covet it."

Judging by how things were going, this was no longer merely a problem of people.

"And if you don't have the power to protect it from those who covet it, a gift instead becomes poison. To give an extreme example, someone who covets the gift I received could kill me and steal it."

Perhaps the word "kill" sounded quite shocking, because Cha Yisol asked in alarm.

"Should I call Jio hyung?"

"No, a Hunter of his caliber must be busy, so there's no need..."

Quick-witted Iru-da knew there was no malice in the gift Seo Jio had given her.

'But he didn't look like someone who wouldn't know this could become a gift I couldn't handle.'

And now, Iru-da decided to try reaching a conclusion.

"... Does this mean I should win favor?"

"I don't know what you mean, but I think you're thinking too complicatedly, Luda."

"If I offer up the gift the goddess desires, I will certainly receive great protection."

"I don't really know what it is, but I don't think Jio hyung thought that far..."

Cha Yisol did not know exactly what his partner was thinking, but sensing how deep her thoughts had gone, he trailed off.

He knew that Black Cloak handed out gifts without thinking about anything.

Looking at his partner, who seemed to be putting together something like a scheme, Cha Yisol thought.

'Smart people seem to live such tiring lives. I'm glad I'm not smart.'

Of course, Jio also knew that his gift could become poison to a small priest like Iru-da.

But because he knew that Black Cloak's gifts would harm no one, he had also given it with an easy heart.

The basram flower was a precious medicine with no side effects, so there would be no problem no matter who used it, and Jio himself, who had given the medicine, as well as the Sun Goddess, had approved the gift.

A gift bestowed under the protection of several divinities had its safety guaranteed through providence and fate.

Above all, while Jio never thought deeply, he knew well the depth and breadth other people could think with.

Jio would be pleased no matter how Iru-da used his gift.

"... I should dedicate it to the goddess."

So this, too, was what Jio had hoped for.

"I'm going to see Priest Kang Seodam. What will you do?"

"I'll go with you."

"If you're bored being alone, go play with the other kids."

"I just want to be with you, Luda, because you're my partner."

"..."

Iru-da soon nodded slowly.

"I'll have to keep you tucked under my arm for the rest of my life."

"Huh? Isn't that how it normally is?"

"It's nothing. I was just expressing my opinion."

And Kang Seodam, who had just returned from a meeting, was said to have choked hard on the fragrant, piping-hot bomb his soft, downy young student had carefully brought in her arms.

One of Collector's meeting rooms.

"Ah, Floor Chief."

"Yu Jina?"

The newly formed dispatch team gathered there one by one.

Garasani, the fifth-floor chief of the Collector gallery, looked over the Hunter who had just entered the meeting room.

The woman he called Yu Jina was wearing a suit and cape that served as the cleanup team's uniform in the gallery.

As a floor chief, it was a face he knew well.

"It's been a while."

"It has."

The cleanup team member grinned and sat across from Garasani.

"There's hardly anything to clean up on the fifth floor, after all."

"It isn't a place where rookies are assigned."

"Maybe because only veterans come and go there, but we never get any news from it."

"If news from the fifth floor reached the cleanup team, wouldn't that be a huge problem in itself?"

"Isn't this all thanks to you looking after things, Floor Chief?"

As she rubbed her palms together, Garasani raised an eyebrow.

"You haven't lost your knack for that pathetic flattery."

"Please make it clear whether you like it or hate it."

"I like it, so try doing it one more time."

"Oh my, as our floor chief lights the fifth floor, peace comes to the gallery and wealth rolls in..."

Around then, another person entered the meeting room.

"Whoa... what is this now?"

"Calling a person 'this' is too much."

"Yes, so what exactly are you doing?"

"Can't you tell? I'm sucking up."

"Nothing's going to come out of sucking up to the fifth-floor chief, though...?"

At the field staff man's words, the woman from the same department as him gave an awkward smile.

"It's been a long time, Floor Chief."

"Is this the first time I've seen you since you moved from working on the third floor into fieldwork?"

"Yes, thanks to you looking out for me so much, I've adjusted well."

"Good. As long as you do your work well wherever you are, that's enough. You're doing well."

Curator Garasani turned toward Yu Jina of the cleanup team.

"Wasn't one more person supposed to come from the cleanup team?"

"A cleanup request came in from the first floor. Since it's their own area, they said they'd just check it quickly and come."

"It is always good to see someone fulfilling their responsibilities. The guest of honor today won't be displeased by such behavior either."

"If needed, I was going to call and tell them to forget the cleanup or whatever and hurry up here, but that's unexpected. Mr. Jio is quite tolerant for a work."

Yu Jina, the cleanup team member, smiled with interest as she looked around.

"I thought Curator Yu Seongun would be joining us too, but he wasn't on the list after all."

"He is an extremely busy person, so it can't be helped."

"No matter how busy he is, this concerns his own assigned work, of all things..."

"Of course, if he adjusted his schedule significantly, it isn't as though he couldn't make time."

"But it wouldn't be easy."

And that was not the only reason.

"The Guild Master wishes to see how 'Mr. Seo Jio' reacts among unfamiliar humans. He likely intends to determine whether the name of 'Mr. Seo Jio' is worth continuing to maintain, or whether there is any danger."

At that, another field staff member asked.

"Still, isn't it dangerous? For the first raid to be an A-rank Dungeon of all things, the difficulty is absolutely not low. Wouldn't it have been better to have him take a slow adjustment period somewhere a little safer?"

"Before we could take such measures, 'Mr. Seo Jio' already came to us with the schedule he wanted, so we can only follow it. And even if such an urgent schedule had not been set, the Guild Master would not have done such a tedious job."

Everyone knew Bi Sabeol's personality well, did they not?

"He is not patient enough to hold out for such a safe opportunity when a plainly decent-looking chance is right in front of him. If he were someone who would let such an enjoyable event pass by boringly, he would never have become Guild Master in the first place."

"That's really hard to argue with..."

"It makes no sense to ask someone who founded Collector from the start because he did not want to exercise that kind of patience to restrain himself now. Besides that, he must have judged this raid worth attempting from various angles."

Through this opportunity, Bi Sabeol would likely decide what position to assign "Mr. Seo Jio" to.

It was a bold operation with a high risk, where quite a few people might die, but now that they had decided to show "Hunter Seo Jio" to the world, it was a process they would have to go through at least once someday.

And there was another reason.

"Most of all, I am not sure 'Mr. Seo Jio' would endure such a safe and boring process."

Collector could certainly have aimed for a safer opportunity.

They could have attached familiar faces to him in a low-rank Dungeon and gradually helped this mystery adapt among humans.

But according to what he had already heard regarding this raid dispatch, "Jio's Portrait" possessed a desire for bloody battles.

He, who was said to also harbor a wicked divinity, might find such a comfortable enclosure disgusting.

"We must not do anything that harms a work."

"I agree on that point."

The cleanup team member and the field staff all nodded.

It was because they knew better than anything what kind of disaster could occur when a "work's" mood soured.

It was not for nothing that all kinds of horror stories had sprung up around Collector.

The field staff member who had previously been a Curator added a comment.

"Still, Curator Yu Seongun must be disappointed."

"His own assigned work is leaving his hands and acting out in the world outside..."

"And it's his first activity, too. It must be on his mind."

For a Curator of Collector, an assigned work was an extremely sensitive subject.

Managing strange mysteries that twisted fate and burrowed into the mind was something that consumed a truly enormous amount of nerves.

A Curator had to love their work, study it, and also recognize its danger.

Since they managed with love a mystery that could kill dozens of people in an instant if it slipped out of their hands, the resulting obsession was inevitable.

"Especially since it's a work from the fifth floor."

No one knew what kind of tragedy might occur if a Curator did not love and obsess over their work.

"He must be very upset..."

"That must be why I was included in this dispatch team."

"Does that mean they can trust someone of your caliber, Floor Chief?"

"I think he chose the lesser evil over the worst."

And it was around then.

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK.

"..."

"Excuse me."

The sound of knocking came from outside the meeting room.

"May I come in?"