It might be too early to say for certain, but so far, Minjun's effort to deal with the gate break was going remarkably smoothly. The goblins were weak but troublesome in numbers; a single burst of his Dragon Fear had left most of them unable to fight. That meant he no longer had to waste his strength on the small fry.

But the real fight, in a sense, was only just beginning. The orcs at the front were closing their encirclement, while the goblin shamans behind them prepared their spells. They were the ones who had made this gate break so difficult.

'I should probably go after the goblin shamans first.' Rather than force his way through their defensive line, it would be better to target whoever was holding the group together. That would be the goblin shamans. 'It might break their morale more effectively, too.' So he set his sights on the shamans at the rear.

His mind made up, Minjun charged into the heart of the enemy with his sword in hand. As he swung it in a wide arc, aura blossomed from its tip and scattered around him, mercilessly cutting down the orcs rushing at him. A few orcs he had missed lunged at him from unexpected angles, while the goblin shamans in the rear unleashed a dizzying barrage of curses. Yet Minjun remained remarkably unruffled.

To him, their attacks felt less threatening than he had expected. Perhaps he had grown that much stronger, perhaps it was thanks to the powerful armor and accessories Sia had given him, or perhaps it was both. Whatever the reason, he could move freely through the enemy ranks, barely affected by the shamans' curses.

Meanwhile, Sia could only stare, spellbound. Until recently, Minjun had been a B-rank hunter. Now he was slaughtering orcs—monsters also classified as B-rank—as he carved a path through them. Beneath a sky poised between day and night, he raced fearlessly into the enemy's midst, scattering aura that resembled the night sky. It was like a scene from an action movie. No, no action scene could ever give her a thrill quite like this. For a moment, she forgot that they had been on a date, and that their time together was almost up. She was utterly captivated by his performance.

By then, Minjun had broken through the orcs' defensive line and reached the goblin shamans at the very back. Overwhelmed by his momentum, they faltered and tried to retreat, but with the sea directly behind them, escape would not be easy.

KEURK, KERRRRK!

The goblin shamans hurriedly devised a new plan among themselves and began casting spells on the orcs. Until now, they had been trying to weaken Minjun, but after watching their curses fail throughout the fight, they had no choice but to try something else.

KERRRK!

The enchanted orcs charged Minjun all at once. The spell boosted their attack power and carried a mild mind-control effect, so they rushed him as though they had forgotten everything he had just done. None of their eyes looked normal, but Minjun paid that no mind. Even with a buff, a B-rank monster was still just a slightly stronger B-rank monster. However recklessly they charged, they were no match for him now.

"Let's finish this quickly."

Minjun took a long stride and swept his sword out once more. Aura streamed from the blade like a whip, drawing thin lines of blood across the goblin shamans.

KIEEEEE!

Having dispatched most of the shamans in an instant, Minjun turned back to the orcs. Though the stronger goblin shamans had already fallen, the spell apparently hadn't worn off: the orcs roared and charged him again. But there was a difference between courage born of stupidity and sheer recklessness. This was nothing more or less than the latter. With his aura now deeper and more vivid than before, Minjun began slaughtering the orcs rushing at him.

Even from a distance, Sia could tell that in that short span of time, Minjun's aura had grown richer and more beautiful. And as it deepened, the monster horde's prospects grew correspondingly bleaker. Freed at last from her fear that he might get hurt, she found herself pulling her phone from her handbag and filming him as he displayed that impossibly beautiful aura.

"Oppa, you're so cool..."

At that moment, Sia was completely entranced by him.

With the shamans thoroughly crushed, nothing stood in Minjun's way. There were too many monsters left to call them stragglers, but each fell to a single blow without putting up a fight. Only after he had finished off even the goblins left unconscious by his Dragon Fear did he put his sword away. The once-pristine sand was soaked with the blood of uninvited visitors from another world.

"Phew."

When he had first seen the monsters emerging from the rift, Minjun had thought he could win. But neither he nor Sia had expected the difference in strength to be this overwhelming. 'Maybe I'm stronger than I think.' Perhaps he had even grown stronger since sparring with Rokan to test his abilities after his return. Otherwise, how could he explain this result? He caught his breath and checked the time. The fight had taken less time than expected, but he still had fewer than five minutes left with Sia.

"Oppa!"

Sia, who had been filming him from the edge of the barrier, hurried over and threw her arms around him. Minjun tried to pull back a little, worried that the blood on his clothes would stain hers, but she hugged him tightly as if she didn't care, then used magic to clean every trace of blood from his body and clothes.

"You were so, so amazing, Oppa! I mean, I thought you could do it. But I didn't expect you to take down the monsters so perfectly—and look so cool doing it...!"

Still caught up in the excitement, Sia poured out words in a rapid stream. Then she paused. Checking the time, she realized she would soon have to let Minjun go. Happiness, and regret. If only they could have stayed together a little longer. If only they could have watched the night sky over Jeju Island and ended the day talking quietly together. She still had so much she wanted to tell him, and she had wanted to share dinner with him somewhere lovely.

Minjun could see the deep regret in her eyes. He felt it too, but there was something heartening about it. Only a few days ago, her trauma had made her hesitant to meet him in person. Now she seemed to have overcome it to some extent and returned to her old self. Understanding each other's feelings all too well, they held hands and gazed at each other without a word.

"Sia. If nothing comes up, let's see each other again in a week."

"Yeah! Let's make sure we do!"

The thought of spending another week apart almost brought tears to Sia's eyes, but she held them back and smiled.

"I'll clean up here later. You go back to where you're staying and get some rest, Oppa. You worked hard today."

"You too. I had a great time today, and you worked hard as well. I'll leave the cleanup to you, then."

After kissing Minjun on the cheek one last time, Sia took him back to his lodging. Then she returned to the beach where a fierce battle had raged only moments before.

The shore, beautiful just an hour ago, was now stained with monster corpses and blood from the sudden gate break. Blood from the bodies was seeping into the blue sea, making for a grisly sight. Her illusion barrier kept others from seeing it, but if she left the mess as it was, it would surely cause an uproar. Using dragon speech, Sia removed every bloodstain and restored the beach to its original state. She piled the many monster corpses in one corner to make them easier to dispose of.

'Now I have to deal with all of those.' Wyvern corpses might have been worth the trouble, but goblin and orc corpses were worth relatively little. She could simply have burned them. But 'Oppa killed all of those monsters.' That meant the corpses belonged to Minjun. If she had killed them herself, she would have incinerated them without a second thought. But she felt he deserved to be rewarded for his efforts, so she decided to sell the corpses and give him the proceeds. Of course, if she—publicly known as a D-rank hunter—sold that many corpses and materials from monsters ranging from C-rank to A-rank, people might grow suspicious. She would have to dispose of them through discreet channels.

She stored the corpses separately in a pocket dimension, finished cleaning up, and dispelled the barrier. "Phew, done." When she looked up after finishing, the moon had already risen.

Instead of returning straight to her lair, Sia decided to stroll along the beach and take a little look around, remembering the time she had spent with Minjun today. 'I wish Oppa were walking here with me.' After a few minutes, she sat on a nearby bench and looked up at the night sky. Perhaps because it was late and the beach wasn't well known, she sensed no one else around.

As she gazed quietly out at the sea, a thought seemed to strike her. She turned on her phone and began looking through the photos she had taken with Minjun that day. She took her time with each one, recalling the moment it had been taken, and a faint smile touched her lips. Never being able to forget anything sometimes felt like a curse. At other times, it felt like a blessing. Like today. She would probably be able to recall today's happy memories just as clearly in a hundred years, or even a thousand.

Once she had looked through all the photos, she watched one last thing: the video she had filmed of Minjun that day, showing him resolving the gate break alone. Onscreen, he overwhelmed the monsters single-handedly, scattering his distinctive aura. The video couldn't bring back the astonishingly vivid thrill she had felt while filming, but it was still enough to send a shiver through her. Even after the long recording ended, Sia couldn't tear her enraptured eyes from the screen.

"My Oppa... It's not just his face that's handsome. He looks amazing swinging a sword, and even his aura is gorgeous. Isn't that just cheating?"

Forgetting all about returning to her lair, Sia sat there and replayed the video again and again, as if under a spell. Until she went to bed, she couldn't get the image of Minjun swinging his sword and scattering his Milky Way-like aura out of her mind.