Time flew, and before we knew it, our date was drawing to a close. Our last stop was a café with a lovely view of the sea. The sun would be setting soon, and we planned to watch it together there.

“It’s getting dark. The sun will set soon.”

“Already? That’s a shame...”

I wanted to watch the sun go down and the moon come up with her, but our time together was limited. Sia and I had six hours at most. That was about an hour and a half more than before, but it still wasn’t enough for us. Looking plainly disappointed, Sia checked the time.

“We have less than an hour left.”

“Already?”

“Yeah. It feels like we’ve only been together for two or three hours. How did the time go by so fast...?”

Sia pouted, apparently sad that it was almost time to part.

“Maybe that just means today was especially fun. Time always seems to crawl when you’re bored, but fly when you’re happy, doesn’t it?”

“I think you’re right, Oppa. Today was really fun, wasn’t it?”

We sipped our coffee and talked about our date.

Every place we’d visited had been wonderful, and little strokes of luck had followed us throughout the day. The botanical garden had been so strangely empty that we’d been able to wander around at our leisure, almost as if we’d rented out the whole place. At the market, vendors had thrown in all sorts of little extras, giving us a taste of their generosity.

But the best thing of all was surely that nothing had happened to interrupt our date. No woman I knew had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, flustering me and upsetting Sia. I hadn’t collapsed without warning when nothing was wrong. Nor had a gate break erupted nearby while we were peacefully eating a meal.

‘Every single one of those has happened to us.’

So...

‘I hope we can finish today’s date without any trouble.’

We could keep chatting like this, then sit together on a bench in the café’s front yard and end our date watching the sunset. A romantic kiss as the sun went down would make it perfect.

“Sia, the sun’s about to set. Shall we go outside?”

“Sure!”

Once outside, we sat on a swing bench in a corner of the yard and swayed gently. Each time it moved back and forth, Sia’s long hair swished softly with it. Holding hands tightly, we looked out at the sea and waited for the sunset.

Before long, the sky began to glow red as the sun set. We got off the swing, took photos with the sunset behind us, and shared a light kiss. Then we sat on a nearby bench to watch the sun go down completely.

But we had barely sat down when—

“... Wait.”

I felt something strange in the air: a wave of mana any hunter would recognize. That familiar pulse could only mean...

‘A gate break!’

We both sensed it and looked at each other at the same time.

“Why is this happening again today...?”

“... I thought we might actually get through today without anything happening.”

Sia sighed at the rift beginning to form in the air, looking deflated. I was just as dumbfounded. Rubbing my face, I turned toward the source of the mana wave.

Why did things like this happen every time we went on a date? It wasn’t some annual tradition. Sia, who must have been as familiar with the pattern as I was, slowly rose with a look of weary resignation.

“It’s around A- to B-rank. Oppa, I’ll go take care of it quickly.”

A gate break had interrupted a previous date, too. She’d left in the middle of eating tteokbokki and returned with everything resolved in less than five minutes. I could put my mind at ease by pretending she was just stepping away to use the bathroom rather than stopping a gate break. She could deal with it that quickly.

But...

“I want to come with you.”

This time, I wanted to help. Sia could probably resolve the situation on her own without any trouble, but it didn’t feel right to let her go close the gate break by herself.

“Last time, I wasn’t in a position to go with you. This time I am.”

The previous gate break had been too difficult for me to get involved, but things were different now. I could do my fair share. So this time, I wanted to go with Sia.

I also wanted to show her how much I’d grown as a hunter. I’d shown Rokan, but I hadn’t yet had the chance to show Sia. She hesitated for a moment, then met my eyes and nodded.

“Okay.”

As though she understood, Sia took my hand and teleported us to the site of the gate break.

We arrived at a small beach whose name I didn’t know. It didn’t seem to be a popular swimming beach, and with autumn already here, there were hardly any people around. Just as we arrived, a rift began forming in the air. The people on the shore screamed and fled as soon as it appeared.

Other hunters who had sensed the mana wave would probably arrive soon. Even allowing for the fact that this was Jeju Island, not Seoul with its many hunters, they would likely be here within ten minutes. I had to act with that in mind. I drew my sword from my pocket dimension and stared at the rift.

Then a sudden impulse struck me.

“Sia.”

“Yeah, Oppa?”

“Could I try handling this gate on my own?”

I knew it was inefficient. If Sia stepped in, she could wrap everything up neatly in a matter of minutes. But I wanted to use this chance to show her how much I’d grown and what I could do.

It might mean an odd end to our date, though. From Sia’s point of view, it could be a difficult request. We finally had precious time together again, and in the middle of our date I was suddenly asking to stop a gate break by myself. If I were her, I wouldn’t have understood why I was asking, either.

So I explained my reasons thoroughly and added that if she didn’t want me to, I wouldn’t press the matter. Sia met my earnest gaze, then smiled.

“Of course. If it looks like you’re having trouble, tell me anytime.”

* * *

When Sia first sensed the gate break, she felt irritated. Like Minjun, she’d been thinking, ‘Surely it won’t happen today?’ Yet here they were again.

For a moment, annoyance surged through her. She even considered ignoring the gate break, taking shelter somewhere safe, and enjoying the rest of her date with Minjun. Other hunters would rush over and sort it out somehow even if she did nothing.

‘But Oppa might be disappointed in me if I do that.’

So, reluctantly, Sia decided to deal with this gate break as she had the last one—only faster. It seemed a little less difficult than the one that had occurred during their date at the tteokbokki restaurant. She could probably finish it in under five minutes and get back to enjoying her date with Minjun. She was about to hurry off when Minjun suddenly said he wanted to go with her. She could have handled it alone in minutes, so there was no real need for him to come, but he seemed determined. She agreed to go together.

‘Actually, that’s even better.’

To Sia, it meant even a little more time at Minjun’s side. She was thinking they could quickly finish the job together, then return to the café and enjoy the rest of their time alone.

“Sia, could I try handling this gate on my own?”

Minjun asked if he could resolve the gate break alone.

‘Why go that far?’

She couldn’t see the need for it, but after listening to his explanation, she understood.

‘But today...’

They had so little time left together. They couldn’t afford to waste it here. But what if she looked at it another way? This was a chance to watch Minjun show off his skills and take down monsters in style. Perhaps that would be nice in its own way. And how could she refuse when he asked her so earnestly?

“Then I’ll put up a barrier around here, Oppa. Fight to your heart’s content. And tell me if you think it’s getting too hard.”

Until their time together ran out, Sia decided to give Minjun her full support in handling the gate break alone. She would intervene if he was in danger or their time together ended. Until then, she would respect his wishes and help him focus entirely on the fight.

The question was how to help. Sia erected a barrier around the area to keep anyone else from being harmed. She also used illusion and spatial distortion magic to make anyone outside it think nothing was happening within. Everything was ready for Minjun. Now it was time to see how much he had grown in Pangaea.

‘Grandpa told me about it.’

Shortly after Minjun returned to Earth, the two of them had sparred briefly to assess his abilities. Grandpa said Minjun had surpassed his expectations, even using Dragon Fear. Full of anticipation, Sia watched him from the edge of the barrier.

A short while later, the gate opened and monsters began to emerge.

‘Goblins, orcs, and... a goblin shaman.’

Goblins were C-rank monsters, orcs were B-rank, and the goblin shaman was A-rank. They weren’t a particularly dangerous lineup for Minjun as he was now—but that assumed he had other hunters of comparable skill with him. To Sia, it looked a little difficult for him to defeat them all alone in less than an hour.

‘Oppa must have realized that, too.’

However much stronger he’d become, Minjun couldn’t be completely unaware of it. And yet he looked more at ease than she’d expected. Did he think he could manage it? At that moment, aura began to bloom from his sword. This was the aura she’d only heard Grandpa describe: beautiful enough to mesmerize, like stars set in a dark night sky. Against the sunset, Minjun extended his sword, wrapped in that night-sky aura.

SCREEECH!

With a single slash, the orcs at the front fell without putting up much resistance. Minjun didn’t stop there. He immediately unleashed Dragon Fear at the monsters. Goosebumps rose all over Sia’s body as he used it.

‘He really can...’

Rokan had told her, so she’d had some idea, but hearing about it and seeing it for herself were two different things.

Here was a man who couldn’t even use dragon speech properly yet, who had trained to wield dragon power for less than two months. And now he was overwhelming goblins with a power thought to belong exclusively to dragons.

KE-RRRK?

Frozen by an unfamiliar terror so overwhelming they could barely breathe, the goblins didn’t dare take a step forward. Some couldn’t move at all; others fainted where they stood or vomited from fear more intense than anything they had ever known. But that only applied to the C-rank goblins. The B-rank orcs and A-rank goblin shaman were unfazed and closed in around Minjun.

‘Should I step in now?’

Sia knew Minjun wouldn’t fall to those small fry. Even if the fight turned against him, with her watching nearby, his safety was all but assured. Still, an instinctive urge to go and help stirred inside her. He had told her beforehand that he wanted to handle this alone, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that she should help.

It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Minjun. She was simply quick to worry, especially where he was concerned. Standing at the edge of the barrier, she fidgeted with her hands and watched him anxiously. But as if to prove all her fears unfounded, Minjun raised his sword again in a sweeping motion, his eyes full of conviction.